Syria

By Juan Cole Former British ambassador to the United States Sir Christoher Meyer is advocating that the US and Western Europe stop advocating the overthrow of the Baath regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and instead coordinate with it to move against the so-called “Islamic State,” which controls some predominantly Sunni Muslim desert towns on […]

Barack Obama

Dear Hillary Clinton: When did not bombing Syria create Isis?

contributors

By Fariborz S Fatemi Hillary Clinton’s criticism of Barack Obama on Syria and the rise of Isis is wrong, and an exercise in selective memory. When did not bombing Syria create ISIS? In her interview with The Atlantic magazine, the former secretary of state fails to point out that the president wanted to bomb Syria […]

Iraq

The Capital of the Caliphate: VICE on the so-called “Islamic State” in Syria & Iraq

contributors

By VICE: “The Islamic State, a hardline Sunni jihadist group that formerly had ties to al Qaeda, has conquered large swathes of Iraq and Syria. Previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the group has announced their intention to reestablish the caliphate and declared their leader, the shadowy Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, […]

Climate Change

Climate Change, Dirty Natural Gas, and the Gaza War

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Calls by Israeli politicians in mainstream positions for the Palestinians to be ethnically cleansed from Gaza in part reflect frustration over the security issue many Israelis maintain the people of Gaza pose to Israel. (If the concern were justified, you’d think the death toll for the Israeli side would be much greater […]

Arab Spring

Middle East Crisis: Juan’s “Ask Me Anything” at Reddit Discussion

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Mirrored from LevantineWar at Reddit.com I am Juan Cole, author of the new book The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation is Changing the Middle East I teach Middle East at U of Michigan, and blog at juancole.com. AMA. (self.LevantineWar) submitted 12 hours ago by jricole Juan Cole – stickied post It […]

Featured

The Debacle of the Caliphates: Why al-Baghdadi’s Grandiosity doesn’t Matter

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Ibrahim al-Badri, a run-of-the-mill Sunni Iraqi cleric, gained a degree from the University of Baghdad at a time when pedagogy there had collapsed because of the Saddam Hussein dictatorship and international sanctions. After 2003 he took the name Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and turned to a vicious and psychopathic violence involving blowing up […]

Hizbullah

Sunni Radicals of ISIS seek showdown with Lebanon’s Hizbullah

contributors

By Radwan Mortada The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has decided to instigate a full-scale conflagration in Lebanon. All indications show that the al-Qaeda offshoot is resolved to bring back suicide bombings en masse to the country of the cedars. After all, Lebanon is within the borders of ISIS’ coveted emirate, yet its […]

Barack Obama

Top 5 Reasons US Aid to “Moderate” Syrian Fighters is Quixotic

Juan Cole

The Obama administration’s fruitless search for effective Sunni “moderate” fighters in Syria continues, with the announcement of a $500 million grant to them for training and weaponry. This policy seems in part to be driven by Saudi Arabia from abroad and by liberal interventionists, including Kerry, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and UN Ambassador Susan […]

Bashar al-Assad

Iraq in last Throes as Kurdistan Seeks Independence, Syria & Iran intervene

Juan Cole

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 […]