Arab World

Dahr Jamail writes at Tomdispatch.com Back then, everybody was writing about Iraq, but it’s surprising how few Americans, including reporters, paid much attention to the suffering of Iraqis. Today, Iraq is in the news again. The words, the memorials, the retrospectives are pouring out, and again the suffering of Iraqis isn’t what’s on anyone’s mind. […]

Libya

Qaddafi’s Arms Flooding Middle East from Libya

Juan Cole

The UN is concerned that unsecured weapons stockpiles from the depots of the late dictator Muammar Qaddafi are flooding into Africa and the Middle East from southern Libya, where the new, elected government exerts little control. Aljazeera English reports Obviously, the Libyan government with the help of neighbors and Europe, ought to be buying back […]

Iraq War

BBC Journalists accidentally Bombed by US Air Force during 2003 Invasion of Iraq (Video)

Juan Cole

BBC crew accidentally bombed by US Air Force during 2003 invasion of Iraq: Video at Youtube:

Afghanistan

Kerry Cajoles Afghanistan and Iraq, as Bush’s former colonies decline to Toe the Line

Juan Cole

Secretary of State John Kerry just made trips to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush administration’s two trophy states, in an attempt to shore up rapidly declining American influence in the two. In Afghanistan, the mood is turning against a US troop presence after 2014. In the last couple of weeks, President Hamid Karzai successfully insisted […]

Iraq

Iraq 10 Years Later: The Bitter Days Continue because Policy didn’t put People First (Al-Sheemary)

Juan Cole

Banen Al-Sheemary ( @balsheem), a young Iraqi-American woman and activist, writes in a guest column for Informed Comment Ten years today, I remember sitting in front of the television and watching the sky turn bright yellow because of the massive blasts. Silent, I turned away from the screen to see my parents’ reaction. Absolute silence. […]

Iraq War

Phil Donohue Recalls how he Was Fired From MSNBC for Being anti-war (Goodman Interview)

Juan Cole

At Democracy Now! Phil Donohue recalls how then General Electric-owned NBC fired him from his popular and top-rated talk show on MSNBC in spring of 2003 because it feared his voice in opposition to the Iraq War. It is great to have the whole story from Donohue. Here is what I wrote at this blog […]

Iran

As Israelis Press Obama on Iran, Let’s Remember they Urged Iraq War, Too

Juan Cole

The Israeli leadership, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, will attempt to strong-arm President Barack Obama, during his visit to Israel, into attacking Iran. (In part this noise about Iran is to deflect attention from the vast Israeli land grab in the Palestinian West Bank). It is now often forgotten, and even denied, that the then […]

Iraq

What we Did to Iraq

Juan Cole

Sunni radicals hit Baghdad Tuesday morning on the anniversary of the beginning of the US war on Iraq, killing over 50 people in attacks on soft targets (shopkeepers, pedestrians) in Shiite areas of the capital. They were signaling their continued die-hard opposition to the new Iraq, which is dominated by Shiite political parties, in which […]

Arab World

UAE Launches 100 Megawatt Solar Energy Plant, Largest in Mideast

Juan Cole

Although the Gulf makes its way in life by selling petroleum, countries like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates don’t engage in that sordid game of the American rich, of climate-change denial. The emirs are in no doubt about its dangers to their region and the need to use their current wealth to move to […]