Arab World

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden ran on making Saudi Arabia a “pariah,” given that the CIA accused Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of authorizing the murder in 2018 of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Istanbul Saudi consulate. Biden and a bipartisan majority in the US Congress were also upset about […]

Afghanistan

War as Terrorism: Conflicts We Can’t Win, Suffering We Don’t See

Andrea Mazzarino

( Tomdispatch.com) – Anyone who grew up in my generation of 1980s kids remembers G.I. Joe action figures — those green-uniformed plastic soldiers you could use to stage battles in the sandbox in your backyard or, for that matter, your bedroom. In those days, when imagery of bombed-out homes, bloodied civilians, and police violence wasn’t […]

Bashar al-Assad

On Memorial Day, let’s get the 900 US Troops out of Syria and away from any War with Russia or Iran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Memorial Day or Decoration Day (referring to the decoration of the graves of soldiers killed in combat) began after the Civil War and has been commemorated since 1868. It is no wonder that the mourning began then. Historian J. David Hacker has estimated that 750,000 troops died in the war, […]

Featured

In Final Slap to Bush-Era Neoconservatives, Iraq Criminalizes Contacts with Israel

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Neoconservatives who pushed for the Bush-Cheney war on Iraq in 2003 hoped that by toppling the Arab nationalist dictator Saddam Hussein they could recreate Iraq as a country friendly to US interests and regional allies like Israel. I was told by one military officer that he was in the […]

Featured

Saudi Arabia Snubs US, Rejects Russia Boycott, as Rumors Fly Biden may meet with the Crown Prince

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Even as the possibility of a visit to Riyadh by President Joe Biden after his upcoming trip to Israel is being rumored, Saudi Arabia is signalling that it cannot be brought on board with the NATO effort to sanction Russia. Last week the Saudi Minister of Energy, Abdul Aziz bin […]

Bush

George W. Bush denounces “the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq — I mean, Ukraine”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Michael Williams at the Dallas Morning News reports on George W. Bush’s speech at his presidential center at Southern Methodist University, during which the former president made what MSNBC’s Mehdi Hassan called “one of the biggest Freudian slips of all time.” Bush denounced the rigged elections that produced the dictatorship […]

Democracy

Lebanese Election sees significant Gains for independent non-sectarian Politicians

The Conversation

By John Nagle, Queen’s University Belfast and Tamirace Fakhoury, Aalborg University | – Lebanese voters are signalling a desire for change, with Hezbollah and its allies losing ground across the country in a parliamentary election. Just as the recent election in Northern Ireland brought a boost for the non-sectarian Alliance Party, Lebanon’s election saw significant […]

Afghanistan

Our Compassion for Ukrainian Victims of War was not on Offer to Iraqis or Afghans when We Invaded

Tomdispatch

By Nan Levinson | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – I’ve been watching this country at war for many years now and, after 9/11, began spending time with American veterans who came to disdain and actively oppose the very conflicts they were sent to fight. The paths they followed to get there and the courage it […]

Climate Crisis

The Iraqi Dust Bowl: The US Invaded for its Oil, but now Climate Change from burning Fossil Fuels is Smothering the Country

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Some Middle East countries profit off oil and gas, but the very source of their prosperity is threatening their future, since burning these fossil fuels causes global heating, and you wouldn’t want the Middle East to be hotter than it already is. But it will be. The very oil that […]