Arab World

By Hussein A. Amery | – People who fled Syria in recent years are often viewed as war refugees because of the violence that has engulfed much of the country since 2011. But those from the northern and northeastern parts of Syria may more accurately be viewed as climate refugees, fleeing not a worsening conflict […]

Iraq

Iraqis rise up against 16 years of ‘made in the USA’ corruption

Open Democracy

By Nicolas J S Davies | – As the PM announces his resignation, Iraqis continue to demand the withdrawal of the crony capitalism implemented by US backed government officials. As Americans sat down to Thanksgiving dinner, Iraqis were mourning 40 protesters killed by police and soldiers on Thursday in Baghdad, Najaf and Nasiriyah. Nearly 400 […]

Brazil

Beef and Oil: Are Brazil’s Bolsonaro and Saudi’s MBS a Match Made in Heaven?

Tori Avila

By Vitoria Avila Fioravanti | – Sao Paulo (Special to Informed Comment) – Beef, oil and veiling and a murdered journalist have catapulted the burgeoning relationship between Brazil and the controversial Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into the headlines for the first time this fall, though the two countries have had formal diplomatic relations since 1968. […]

Afghanistan

Is American Exceptionalism Killing the Planet? The Many Abuses of Endless War

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com) – Ever since 2007, when I first started writing for TomDispatch, I’ve been arguing against America’s forever wars, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, or elsewhere. Unfortunately, it’s no surprise that, despite my more than 60 articles, American blood is still being spilled in war after war across the Greater Middle East and Africa, even […]

Featured

Iraqi Crowds Erupt in Joyous Celebrations as PM, elected under Bush Constitution, Offers to Resign

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – AFP Arabic reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdulmahdi said Friday he would tender his resignation this weekend after five weeks of massive protests throughout Iraq. Huge crowds of demonstrators throughout Baghdad broke into raucous celebrations at the news, the local stringers for AFP report. Some interviewees among them, however, […]

Displaced and Refugees

Syrian Kurds, abandoned by Trump, Face War Crimes, Ethnic Cleansing at Hands of Turkey’s Fundamentalist Proxies

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Human Rights Watch reports that the fundamentalist Arab fighters Turkey brought with it to the Kurdish regions of northeast Iraq are guilty of war crimes. In the area Turkey has militarily occupied, which it is pleased to call a “safe zone,” the Arab fighters stand accused of shooting down civilian […]

Iraq

Kurdish Yazidi Survivors of ISIL Massacre, Female Enslavement, Demand Justice

The Conversation

By Tutku Ayhan and Güneş Murat Tezcür | – It’s been five years since the Islamic State killed 3,100 Yazidi people in Iraq – mostly men and the elderly – forced 6,800 women and children into sexual slavery, marriage or religious conversion and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing. The Islamic State saw the Yazidis as […]

Lebanon

Lebanon’s October Revolution: Resistance and Popular Culture

Middle East Monitor

By Amal Ghazal | – I am following Lebanon’s October Revolution from Vancouver. Between me and the revolution stand two continents, an ocean, a sea and a 10-hour time difference. However, the connections between me and what I watch on my screen render time and space irrelevant. In fact, the distance draws me closer to […]

Donald Trump

It Isn’t only Syrian Kurds who Feel abandoned by Trump: Ask the Iraqis

The Conversation

By Mieczysław P. Boduszyński | – In all the hand-wringing that critics and commentators have done since President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from northern Syria, one of the common refrains emphasizes the breach of trust between Washington and its Kurdish militia partners. Some scholars of international relations put little stock in […]