By Juan Cole Secretary of State John Kerry is an experienced and knowledgeable diplomat, but the difficulty of the situation in the Middle East right now is demonstrated by the repeated reversals he suffered during his trip to the Middle East. He asked Egypt to honor freedom of speech even as he brought news of […]
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Arab World
Iraq Crisis: It’s the Oil, Stupid!
By Michael Schwartz via Tomdispatch Events in Iraq are headline news everywhere, and once again, there is no mention of the issue that underlies much of the violence: control of Iraqi oil. Instead, the media is flooded with debate about, horror over, and extensive analysis of a not-exactly-brand-new terrorist threat, the Islamic State of Iraq […]
Iraq in last Throes as Kurdistan Seeks Independence, Syria & Iran intervene
By Juan Cole Former Vice President and unindicted felon Richard Bruce Cheney (they always give the criminals’ names that way, in full) once said that he was sure that the Sunni Arab resistance to the US in Iraq was in its last throes. Nobody in his own administration agreed with him then, and this allegation […]
Why you need an EV: Radicalism in Iraq Menaces the World’s most Important Oil Fields
By Juan Cole The virtual collapse of the Iraqi army and its inability to take back any territory from Sunni forces coordinated by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria brings into question our earlier insouciance about the oil impact of ISIS advances. The Kirkuk fields in the north produce only about 670,000 barrels a […]
Religion and the Fight over Public Space in Egypt
By Marwa Fikry Abdel Samei | Cairo (Special to Informed Comment) “Have you pronounced blessings on the Prophet today?” These words alarmed the Egyptian regime and impelled it to announce a war on the posters carrying them. Last week, whenever you go around the streets of Cairo and some other governorates, you could hardly miss […]
Hardliners in Israel & Iran Resist US Pivot to Iran over ISIS
By Juan Cole The continued advances of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) on Sunday brought the radical Sunni movement to the borders of Jordan and consolidated its control over al-Anbar Province. The Iraqi military continued its rapid collapse into uselessness, losing all the country’s military border outposts to ISIS. There […]
Israel Threatens Witnesses to its Killings of Palestinians, and it Must Stop
Via Human Rights Watch Israeli Army targets Man Whose Cameras Recorded Deaths Israel should be investigating these deaths, but instead its forces seem intent on intimidating witnesses and ensuring future abuses won’t be caught on camera. The Israeli response to the killing of two boys looks more like an attempt to cover up than a […]
Neo-Zangid State erases Syria-Iraq Border, cuts Hizbullah off from Iran
By Juan Cole With the alleged fall to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria of Qa’im on Saturday, and of Talafar a few days ago, the border between Iraq and Syria has now been effectively erased. A new country exists, stretching from the outskirts of Baghdad all the way to Aleppo. In history, it […]
Inside Mosul: ISIS fears Popular Uprising; Baathists cry Foul
By a Special Correspondent via Niqash.org NIQASH’s correspondent takes a walk around Mosul to see how the city has changed since extremists took it over last week. Despite masked men at checkpoints and burned out military facilities, things are strangely calm. Two hundred meters from the eastern entrance to Mosul, the Iraqi Kurdish taxi driver […]
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