Featured

By Juan Cole Saturday was a day of militia pushback against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS]. In a sign of growing polarization on both the Sunni and the Shiite sides, the best fighters on the Shiite side against Sunni al-Qaeda wannabes. When the worst elements of two communities go at one another, […]

Featured

Enter the Ayatollah: Sistani calls on Iraqis to enlist in Fight against “Terrorists”

Juan Cole

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, spiritual leader of most Iraqi Shiites, intervened forcefully in Iraqi politics on Thursday and Friday, giving his support to the national army and urging Iraqi men to volunteer to enlist and to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). He termed the hyper-Sunni group, which has taken over the […]

Barack Obama

The Second Iran-Iraq War and the American Switch

Juan Cole

Iran has decided to intervene directly in Iraq and has already sent fighters to the front, according to the Wall Street Journal, based on Iranian sources. It is alleged that Iranian special forces have helped the Iraqi army push back in Tikrit, the birth place of Saddam Hussein that was overrun earlier this week by […]

Featured

Iraq: Looming War of Shiite, Kurdish, Extremist-Sunni Militias

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] is apparently keeping control of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city of 2 million, and advanced to take Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, where they held a huge Sunni prayer session. It has been pointed out by a number of commentators that ISIS (also […]

Democracy

The Fall of Mosul and the False Promises of Modern History

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The fall of Mosul to the radical, extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a set of historical indictments. Mosul is Iraq’s second largest city, population roughly 2 million (think Houston) until today, when much of the population was fleeing. While this would-be al-Qaeda affiliate took part of Falluja and […]

Crime

Top 3 White Terrorist Attacks in America this Week

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Our capitalist class may be becoming an absolute danger to ordinary Americans. By promoting a doctrine of absolute right to gun ownership (which rather helps gun manufacturers) and at the same time encouraging people to hate the Federal government and resent paying taxes, they are creating a whole class of alienated far […]

Barack Obama

Student Debt: Blame Law-Makers, Tax-Shirking Rich, War on Drugs, not Universities

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole In honor of President Obama’s support for Senator Elizabeth Warren’s bill to address the student debt crisis by offering students with older debt loads lower interest rates [see video below], I’m reprinting this golden oldie. The statistics in it have only gotten worse from a social point of view in the past […]

Afghanistan

Dear Sen. McCain: No, the Taliban Prisoners didn’t Carry out 9/11; but you Supported Muslim Radicals

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Sen. John McCain on Sunday maintained that President Obama, in releasing the five officials who had served in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in the 1990s and until 2001, had released people who were “hard core al-Qaeda who were responsible for 9/11.” I am shocked and dismayed that the knowledgeable Sen. McCain […]

Arab Spring

Egypt, Syria, Libya . . . . What is the Appeal of Phoney Elections in the Middle East?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The world has been treated to a whole series of “elections” in the Middle East recently. Iraq had parliamentary elections, Libya’s parliament voted for a new prime minister, and Egypt and Syria had presidential elections. This summer, Turkey will have elections. It would be nice if all these elections signaled a turn […]