Iraq

Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Previously it was the unemployed or those threatened who tried to leave Iraq for good. But a new wave of would-be immigrants is different – they are young, educated and employed. But they’ve lost all hope at home. A displaced family from Hawija in Kirkuk recieve […]

Iraq

It’s Dictatorship & Sectarianism, Stupid! – Rethinking the war on Daesh/ ISIL

contributors

By: Ramzy Baroud – (Ma’an News Agency) – – As much of the Middle East sinks deeper into division between competing political camps, the so-called ‘Islamic State’ (‘IS’) continues its unhindered march towards a twisted version of a Muslim caliphate. Many thousands have lost their lives, some in the most torturous ways, so that ‘IS’ […]

Energy

Thousands Protest in Baghdad against Lack of Electricity, Services & demand end of Corruption

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – It seems extraordinary, but in a country where Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) has advanced to within an hour’s drive of the capital, Baghdad, civil politics there has not been paralyzed. Big demonstrations broke out on Friday. #Iraq|is protesting en masse today in Tahrir Square(#Baghdad) calling for better […]

Iraq

After ISIL? Shiite Militias begin Entering Iraqi Politics

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Once they were focused on fighting extremists. Now Iraq’s controversial volunteer Shiite militias seem to be preparing the ground for their political debut. It’s been extremely hot in Iraq over the past few weeks – summer temperatures have gone as high as 51 degrees Celsius […]

Featured

Top Six Signs ISIL/ Daesh is Doomed

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – It has been over a year since Mosul fell to Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). In some ways the organization has continued to make advances since then, taking Ramadi and Palmyra in the past few months. It isn’t as important as FBI director James Comey says it is, […]

Featured

Turkey’s new “war on terror” mainly targeting Kurds

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – What was at first announced as a new Turkish turn toward attacks on Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on Friday has quickly become largely a campaign against Kurds instead. It is being alleged that the Turkish Air Force launched dozens of strikes against bases of the Kurdistan Workers […]

Iran

Iraqis Divided on Iran Deal: Sunnis say, “The US sold us to Iran”

contributors

Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – While the rest of the world debates the merits of the Iranian nuclear deal, Iraqis are arguing about it too: Did the US sell them out? Will Iran now be able to interfere in Iraq with impunity? Earlier this month news broke that a deal on […]

fiction

One Ring to Bind them: Reading the Lord of the Rings to defeat ISIL

contributors

By Akil N Awan | (The Conversation) | – – The wave of recent attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and Turkey, all apparently linked to Islamic State in some way, have reinforced the spectre of the unstoppable “Daesh death cult” whose tentacles of terror can reach deep into every corner of the globe The omnipresence of […]

Iraq

Is the ISIS War About Oil After All?

contributors

By Jack Werner | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – The unfolding intervention against the Islamic State shows that oil doesn't just guide U.S. foreign policy. It constrains our ways of thinking about it. Foreign intervention is 100 times more likely if oil reserves are present in a country experiencing civil war. That’s the […]