Iraq

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In the past week, Linah al-Saafin at Al Jazeera English points out, an Israeli drone hit a Hizbullah target in Lebanon, Israeli fighter jets bombed a base in Syria with Iranian personnel, and Israel somehow hit bases of a Shiite militia in Iraq, including one on the Syria-Iraq border, killing […]

Featured

Former Iraqi PM Threatens Military action against Israel after Tel Aviv Bombed Shiite Militia Base

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Former prime minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, responded to news that Israel had bombed Shiite militia bases in Iraq with threats that if it continued, Iraq would take strong defensive measures and would carry the fight to Israel itself, forming a multinational coalition and backed by Iran. Al-Maliki has been […]

Iraq

Caught between Iran, the Sunnis and the US, is Iraq a State without a Nation?

Tareq A. Ramadan

By Tareq A. Ramadan | – (Informed Comment) – The fall of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist dictatorship in March of 2003 was a cataclysmic political event for the Iraqi state. Sixteen years later, the fallout continues to shape and re-shape its political, religious, social, cultural, judicial, and economic life. Over the years, and as a result […]

Afghanistan

Majority of US Veterans doubt Value of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria Wars: Pew

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A Pew Research Center opinion poll conducted among 1,284 veterans who had served since 2001 (which also polled 1,087 American civilians as a control), found that a majority of veterans holds that the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars and the intervention against ISIl in Syria were not worth it. The results […]

Iraq

As Trump heads for Another gotten-up Mideast War, Iraqi Youth stage a 20K-Strong Peace Festival

Tomdispatch

By Laura Gottesdiener | – (Tomdispatch.com) – There’s a dark joke going around Baghdad these days. Noof Assi, a 30-year-old Iraqi peace activist and humanitarian worker, told it to me by phone. Our conversation takes place in late May just after the Trump administration has announced that it would add 1,500 additional U.S. troops to […]

Donald Trump

Mission Accomplished? Could US-Iran Conflict Tear Iraq Apart Again?

Juan Cole

The US did to Iraq in reality what Daenarys Targaryen did to King’s Landing in the fictional Game of Thrones

Iran

Trump had to Sneak into Iraq. Iran’s Rouhani was Welcomed with Open Arms

Middle East Monitor

President Rouhani’s recent visit to Baghdad demonstrates Iran’s increased regional role at the expense of the US

Featured

How Bush’s War on Iraq Produced Trumpism, Instability, Refugees and Climate Catastrophe

Juan Cole

This sort of glib rhetoric was to cost the lives of nearly 5,000 American military personnel and the lives of several hundred thousand Iraqis

Iraq

Grand Ayatollah Sistani Slaps down Trump: You may not use Iraq against its Neighbors

contributors

“Iraq wants balanced relations with neighboring countries, avoiding interfering in their internal affairs or detracting from their sovereignty.”