Syria

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Kevin Liptak at CNN reports that Trump on Thursday tweeted on the Idlib campaign of the current Syrian government and its Russian backer. Trump said, “Russia, Syria, and Iran are killing, or on their way to killing, thousands of innocent civilians in Idlib Province,” he tweeted. “Don’t do it! Turkey […]

Assyrians

A Subdued Christmas for Middle Eastern Christians amid New Wave of Popular Protests

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Chaldean Christians in Iraq have been asked by their Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, to hold subdued private Christmas ceremonies this year to honor the over 500 Iraqi protesters who have been killed by government security and paramilitary security forces. Public celebrations have been canceled. The Iraqi street crowds want an […]

Featured

At NATO, Trump irrelevant as France’s Macron Confronts Turkey on Invasion of Syrian Kurds

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The 70th anniversary of NATO was commemorated with a low-key meeting rather than a summit and was not the united show of success hoped for by Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, reports Al Jazeera. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan made waves. And a CBC camera crew caught some NATO leaders, including Canada’s Justin […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis, Not Conflict, Drove Many Syrian Refugees from their Homes

The Conversation

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 […]

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 […]

Donald Trump

No, Russia isn’t taking over the Middle East from the US

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – There has been a lot of talk of Russian reassertion in the Middle East and angst (except in Donald Trump) about a deterioration of the US position there. Neither of these propositions, of a Russian assertion or a US decline, is supported by much evidence. And a US disengagement from […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Debacle in the Desert: A Post Mortem on the Kurdish-American Military Alliance (1941-2019)

Brian Glyn Williams

(Informed Comment) – An “After-Action” Report on the Kurds’ Vital Role in The Defeat of ISIS and Death of “God’s Shadow on Earth”: On October 26th US Delta Forces, acting on intelligence provided to them by their trusted Kurdish allies, launched a dangerous, long-distance heliborne raid from Iraq, across a region in northern Syria that […]

Donald Trump

Trump Expands US Military Mission in Syrian Oil Fields, as Russian calls him a “Hitler”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Lolita C. Baldor at the Associated Press reports that Trump has been prevailed upon by the US officer corps and national security officials to authorize some 600 troops to guard the Syrian oil fields in Deir al-Zor province, in addition to the 200 already in the Tanf pocket. Kurdish troops […]

Displaced and Refugees

Syrian Kurds charge Turkey with Ethnic Cleansing as US Military frets it will be “blind” without Kurdish Help

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northeast Syria today accused Turkish forces of conducting ethnic cleansing campaigns in the Kurdish region they have occupied between Tel Abyad and Ra’s al-Ayn. The communique said, “and after more than 300,000 civilians fled from its cities and villages and hamlets and houses and hospitals […]