Iraq

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – USA Today’s headline went, “Mayors see broken trust, political agenda in Trump’s surge of federal officers to US cities.” Surge? For those of us old enough to remember George W. Bush’s Iraq War, the use of the word “surge” to describe Federal agents sent into Democratic cities to break heads […]

Donald Trump

Iran’s Khamenei presses Iraq PM to Expel US troops, as Iraqi Parliament Legislated

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iraq Akhbar (Iraq News) reports on the first visit of Mustafa al-Kadhimi as Iraqi prime minister to Iran. He met with Iran’s clerical Leader, Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday. Khamenei said that Iran wants to see “a strong and independent Iraq that enjoys full sovereignty and internal cohesion.” He pledged never […]

Donald Trump

Another Screw-Up: Iraq announces Gradual US Troop Withdrawal, in Aftermath of Trump’s Strike on Local Generals

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Thursday, the new Iraqi government of Mustafa al-Kadhimi concluded its first security review with its US partner, according to Arwa Ibrahim at Al Jazeera. They issued a joint statement saying, “”In light of significant progress towards eliminating the ISIS [or ISIL] threat, over the coming months the US would […]

Bill of Rights

How American cities were Reduced to Esper’s “Battlespace”: From Fallujah to Minneapolis

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Bush administration’s war of aggression on and military occupation of Iraq that began in 2003 shifted the United States to a militaristic society. Some 2.7 million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, an astonishing number. The Bush administration began the practice of sending to civilian police departments military […]

Arab World

Gulf Security in the Age of Covid-19: Webinar, Qatar University

Juan Cole

Gulf Studies Center, Qatar University Panel on Gulf Security in the Age of Covid-19

Afghanistan

Will our Post-Pandemic Forever Wars be Fought at a Social Distance?

Danny Sjursen

( Tomdispatch.com) – Covid-19, an ongoing global human tragedy, may have at least one silver lining. It has led millions of people to question America’s most malignant policies at home and abroad. Regarding Washington’s war policies abroad, there’s been speculation that the coronavirus might, in the end, put a dent in such conflicts, if not […]

Afghanistan

On Memorial Day: How the US Lost its “Battle of Aqaba” to the Coronavirus

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On July 6, 1917, Auda Abu Tayy led his Howeitat tribesmen in a successful attack on the Ottoman port of Aqaba in what is now Jordan but was then the Ottoman Empire. The Arabs of the Hejaz or Western Arabia and the Transjordan had allied with the British to revolt […]

Afghanistan

If only we Had that $6.4 Trillion we wasted on Iraq and Afghanistan to Lift the Economy and Fight Coronavirus

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Wouldn’t it be nice if the richest country in the world had some resources stored up to deal with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and the worst health crisis since the 1918 Influenza Pandemic that killed 600,000 Americans? I mean, we had a $21 trillion a year […]

Democracy

Trump Vetoes War Powers Restrictions on Attacking Iran as “Insulting”– as Iraq’s new PM enters Crosshairs

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – ( Nikki Carvajal at CNN reports that Trump vetoed the invocation of the War Powers Act passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives, with some bipartisan support in the wake of his assassination at Baghdad International Airport of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani on January 3. Even some […]