Arab World

San Francisco (Foreign Correspondent) – While the world focuses on the coronavirus pandemic, tensions between the US and Iran are heating up. The two countries are engaging in tit-for-tat military attacks that threaten a wider war. In mid-March, Washington officials accused an Iran-allied militia of launching rockets at a US military base in Iraq, killing […]

Featured

5 Years into Saudi War on Yemen, 14 mn. in Acute Need, 1/2 of Hospitals closed, and Coronavirus Looms

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Five years ago, Saudi Arabia launched its ruinous war on Yemen. In 2020, the oil-rich kingdom has nothing to show for this albatross around its neck. The war was the brainchild of then defense minister Mohammed Bin Salman, who is now the crown prince. Yemen is a country of 28 […]

Israel/ Palestine

The World Turned its Back on Gaza’s Palestinians, but Qatar is donating $150mn to support coronavirus battle

Middle East Monitor

Qatar will be sending $150 million in aid to the besieged Gaza Strip to support United Nations humanitarian programmes and efforts to help combat the new coronavirus outbreak, the state-run Qatari Committee to Rebuild Gaza announced on Twitter today. The emergency aid, which will cover a period of six months, comes after the Palestinian Health […]

Afghanistan

What Americans Don’t Know About the hardships of Military Families

Tomdispatch

By Andrea Mazzarino | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – As each of my husband’s Navy submarine deployments came to an end, local spouses would e-mail me about the ship’s uncertain date of return. They were attempting to sell tickets to a raffle in which the winner would be the first to kiss her returning sailor. […]

Donald Trump

As US Pulls Military Trainers from Iraq, will the Coronavirus Finally End America’s Forever Wars?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Will the coronavirus result in the second withdrawal of US troops from Iraq? There is an increasing question of whether the some 5,000 US military personnel there can be protected from the outbreak if they remain in that country. In any case, many of those servicemen are involved in training […]

Bush

17 Years and $2 Trillion Ago, Bush and Neocons thought it would be a Good Idea to Attack Iraq

Middle East Monitor

By Nasim Ahmed | @Nasimbythedocks | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Seventeen years ago, on 19 March 2003, the US led the western invasion of Iraq in a war many consider to be the worst foreign policy disaster in modern history. Justified under the pretext of destroying weapons of mass destruction (WMD) allegedly […]

Donald Trump

Trump Admin. in “Historic” withdrawal of Troops from 3 Iraq Bases amid Ongoing Rocket Attacks

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – AFP is reporting that the US military is withdrawing US troops from 3 Iraqi bases. They are al-Qa’im in the far north on the Syrian border, Qayyarah near Mosul, and Kirkuk. AFP quotes Coalition Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Col. Myles B. Caggins III as saying “A transfer ceremony is taking […]

Iraq

Is Covid-19 Iraq’s Next Desert Storm? The American-Built State was already a Violent Shambles with Little Healthcare

Tareq A. Ramadan

Detroit (Special to Informed Comment) – Iraq has endured decades of destabilizing political and military turbulence that has threatened its survivability as a nation-state. Its political infrastructure has been coopted by sectarianism and horrendous levels of corruption, its military is weak and disoriented, the country has endured years of war, occupation, terrorism, and civil strife, […]

Children

The Children of Syria: Millions of Young Lives Blighted by a Decade-Long War

Human Rights Watch

By Philippa H Stewart (Senior Media Officer) and Bill Van Esveld (Associate Director, MENA, Children’s Rights Division) | – ( Human Rights Watch) – The war in Syria has been taking its toll on children for nine years – their lives forever marked by the conflict. Hundreds of thousands of children are now fighting to […]