Arab World

San Marco, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – In early February 2023 a 22-year-old Iraqi YouTube star, Tiba Al-Ali was strangled by her father in an “honor killing,” part of the quotidian violence the nation has endured over the last two decades. In November 2023 Giulia Cecchettin, a 22-year-old engineering student from the Venice region […]

Featured

Tempest in a Teapot: British Illusions and American Hegemony from Iraq to Yemen

Marc Martorell Junyent

Review of Tom Stevenson, Someone Else’s Empire: British Illusions and American Hegemony.. London: Verso, 2023. Munich (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Everything is going well in the “Special Relationship” between the US and the UK. After an American chemist dared to suggest that adding salt to the quintessential British cup of tea could represent an […]

Featured

Is Tehran Winning the Middle East? How the Gaza Conflict Made Democracy’s Name Mud for Millions

Juan Cole

Here is my latest column for Tomdispatch.com. Do check out Tom Engelhardt’s important introduction over there at the original site. ( Tomdispatch.com ) – In the midst of Israel’s ongoing devastation of Gaza, one major piece of Middle Eastern news has yet to hit the headlines. In a face-off that, in a sense, has lasted […]

Afghanistan

The October 7th America has Forgotten: and the War Deaths we no Longer Protest (or Even Think About)

Andrea Mazzarino

(Tomdispatch.com ) – We Americans have been at war now since October 7th, 2001. That was when our military first launched air strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan in response to al-Qaeda’s September 11th terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. That’s 22 years and counting. The “war on terror” that began then would […]

Egypt

Red Sea attacks in Sympathy with Gaza Escalate as Yemeni Houthis’ Resilience Surprises Biden

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Helpers of God (Ansar Allah) or Houthis in Yemen are proving a bigger challenge for the Biden Administration’s attempt to run interference for the Israeli atrocities in Gaza than Washington had expected. Just Monday morning the Yemeni forces fired a ballistic missile at the US-owned and -operated M/V Torm […]

Hamas

Iran’s “Axis of Resistance:” Different Groups, Similar Goals

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Kian Sharifi ( RFE/RL ) – Iran’s so-called axis of resistance is a loose network of proxies, Tehran-backed militant groups, and an allied state actor. The network is a key element of Tehran’s strategy of deterrence against perceived threats from the United States, regional rivals, and primarily Israel. Active in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, […]

Egypt

Microplastics found in Nile River Fish: Toxic Pollution threatens World’s Longest River

The Conversation

By Dalia Saad, University of the Witwatersrand | – The Nile is one of the world’s most famous rivers. It’s also Africa’s most important freshwater system. About 300 million people live in the 11 countries it flows through. Many rely on its waters for agriculture and fishing to make a living. The Nile’s two main […]

Lebanon

From Ukraine to Lebanon, a tale of two Marias

Ibrahim Al-Marashi

On a fateful day in February 2022, Ibrahim al-Marashi found himself praying in two religions for two Marias. In a world where narcissism and conflict cause immeasurable hurt, humanity can triumph over division, he writes. “On 24 February 2022, while travelling to Lebanon to visit his great-aunt Maria in Lebanon, Ibrahim al-Marashi’s thoughts were with […]

Counter-Terrorism

Bombing Muslims for Peace: Isn’t It Time to Put Our Toy Soldiers Away (Along with Our Illusions)?

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Like many American boys of the baby-boomer generation, I played “war” with those old, olive-drab, plastic toy soldiers meant to evoke our great victory over the Nazis and “the Japs” during World War II. At age 10, I also kept a scrapbook of the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and […]