By Juan Cole Update: President Obama on Tuesday morning announced the end of the Afghanistan War on December 31, 2016. He envisions about 10,000 US troops there through 2015, then 5,000 in 2016, then virtually none except to guard the Kabul embassy in 2017. He says that this plan, however, is dependent on the Afghan […]
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Juan Cole
On Memorial Day, Let’s do right by our Veterans
(By Juan Cole) Memorial Day should honor not only those military personnel who gave their lives for America but really all those who have suffered and died in war. Given the difficulties that have been revealed for Veterans in getting prompt and thorough healthcare from the VA, it is also a day in which those […]
30 Murders by Firearm in England 2012 (equiv. 164), vs. 8,855 in US
By Juan Cole The mentally imbalanced individual who hunted down UC Santa Barbara students and knifed three and shot 6 of them to death, wounding with gunfire 7 more, on Saturday, used a semi-automatic handgun. The most popular such weapon is a Glock. It is not an automatic weapon, meaning you have to squeeze the […]
Pope Francis in Jordan Reaches out to Forgotten Syrian Refugees, Christians and Muslims
By Juan Cole AFP Arabic reports that Syrian refugees, and Christian refugees in particular, are hoping that the visit of Pope Francis to Jordan on Saturday will raise the profile of their plight. Jordan is a country of 6.3 million citizens, but it has another 600,000 or so Syrian refugees. Likely on the order of […]
Pope Francis to call for Sovereign, Independent Palestinian State from Bethlehem
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin is signaling that Pope Francis in his visit to Bethlehem on Sunday will strongly support the right of Palestinians to a sovereign state. Implicitly, Pope Francis will condemn the Apartheid system of military rule used by Israel in the West Bank, though he likely won’t use the word. […]
Top 5 Wars on Religious Extremism in Today’s Muslim World
The Fox News commentators who say that the Muslim world is not doing enough to police its own extremist movements don’t actually seem to be reading the news. If anything in a number of countries they’ve gone overboard with a Bush style ‘war on terror.’ To wit: 1. On Wednesday, the commander of Libya’s Air […]
The Obama Effect? Are Iran/ Saudi-and-GCC no longer on a war footing?
(By Juan Cole) There are signs of a diplomatic thaw between Iran and the Arab oil monarchies of the Gulf. It has just been announced that the ruler of Kuwait, Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, will make a state visit to Iran. This news comes after it was confirmed that the Iranian foreign minister has been invited […]
Sunnis Big Losers in Iraq Elections, PM al-Maliki has Largest Party
(By Juan Cole) The results of the Iraqi parliamentary elections are in, and everybody lost. There will be another hung parliament that gets almost nothing done. The Sunni Arabs ended up dividing their vote and doing poorly. The Shiites likewise are deeply divided. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s party did best, positioning him for a third […]
Second Libyan Upheaval, this Time Against Political Islam, Extremist Militias
(By Juan Cole) In Benghazi on Monday morning, fighting resumed between the “Libyan National Army” forces of Col. Khalifa Hifter and fundamentalist extremists. The latter fired rockets at the Benina military airport overnight, but caused no casualties. It was from this base that aircraft were flown on Friday against positions of the fundamentalists, by air […]