Iraq

Niqash.org | (Mosul) | – – The Islamic State has issued orders banning satellite TV because it spreads false news. They’re also demanding all Internet users’ names to find spies sending information for airstrikes. He began his conversation on Facebook in an unusually serious way. Abdul Hamid*, a man living in Mosul, the northern Iraqi […]

Iraq

Will it ever be ‘Mission Accomplished’? Why Baghdad is Still Insecure

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | (Baghdad) | (Niqash.org) | – – The outskirts of Baghdad are very dangerous these days. Islamic State fighters hide here, mounting attacks on the city. A security barrier is planned but the real issue is intractable. While Baghdad is still the venue for many suicide bombers and car bombs, it is […]

Human Rights

Defeating ISIL in Iraq while Protecting Civilians: Don’t destroy Mosul to “Save” It

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – (Beirut) – Iraqi government forces gearing up to drive Islamic State fighters from Mosul should prioritize protection of civilians. Hundreds of thousands of civilians remain in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which the extremist group Islamic State, also known as ISIS, took control of in June 2014. ISIS and pro-government […]

Barack Obama

The Iraq War Never Ended: An Interview with Anand Gopal

contributors

By Charles Davis | ( TeleSur | – – The U.S. is at war with the same extremist group it claimed to have defeated five years ago, and it’s relying on sectarian extremists to "win" again. The United States is winning the war on terror, just as it always has. The Islamic State group is […]

Iraq

Daesh and Territorial Control Reconsidered

contributors

By Michael Degerald | ( History X ISIS ) | – – It might seem strange to open this essay by speaking about circulation and vitality in regard to Daesh [ISIS, ISIL]. Yet when we think of a nation-state, circulation is rarely the first thing that comes to our minds. Imagine a room where air […]

Iraq

Fall of Iraq, Rise of Sunnistan? Sunni Politicians In Washington Promote Idea of Partition and a Sunni Region

contributors

Mazin Sahib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Leading Sunni Muslim politicians have opened an office in Washington to represent Sunni interests. There’s talk of an autonomous Sunni region again as a result. But other Sunni MPs say its all nonsense. In Dhuluiya victims of the IS group demanded that families associated with IS […]

Iraq

Visualization: How ISIL vastly exaggerated its Influence and Everyone Bought it (The Atlantic)

contributors

By Kathy Gilsinan, Caitlin Cadieux, Daniel Lombroso | (The Atlantic Video Report) | – – “Americans are constantly being told that ISIS is a massive threat—but what does that mean? Are there ways to quantify how big the Islamic State actually is? Atlantic senior editor Kathy Gilsinan breaks down ISIS by the numbers, including the […]

Iraq

With Iraq’s Shiite Gov’t in Collapse, Can Country finally get past US-crafted Sectarianism?

contributors

Niqash.org | Baghdad | – – Iraq’s Crises Highlight Major Divide Between Country’s Shiite Politicians The Shiite political alliance that dominates Iraq is cracking under pressure from the country’s crises. But some who appear to be foes today, may actually be friends once the protest signs have been put away. The current protests against the […]

Democratic Party

If ISIL falls before November, how will it affect the US Election?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – GOP frontrunner Donald Trump openly attributes his success at the polls to the terrorist attacks on Paris last fall, in which Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) was involved. Ever since Mosul fell to the organization (originally al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia) in June of 2014, it has provoked great concern […]