Syria

By Josh Butler | – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – A single image can be more powerful, more descriptive and more potent than an entire essay – ‘ a picture says a thousand words,’ as the cliché goes. So it is in Syria, where despite the undoubted millions of words penned about atrocity after atrocity, bombing […]

History

ISIL vs the Graven Idols of History

contributors

By Elliott Colla | (Baghdad Central) – ISIS’s destruction of antiquities at the Mosul Museum and the ancient city of Nimrud has generated a lot of discussion and disgust, all of it well deserved. But much of what has been said fails to adequately contextualize these attacks in two ways. First, in the history of […]

Featured

Syria: As al-Qaeda defeats ‘moderate’ US allies, will US ally with al-Qaeda?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – President Obama’s impossibly complicated plan for dealing with ISIL involves a de facto alliance with Iran in Iraq, and training up a ‘third force,’ essentially creating a new, ‘moderate’ Free Syrian Army to attack al-Qaeda and ISIL. Training an effective new fighting force will likely take 15 years, […]

Bashar al-Assad

Climate Change helped Provoke Syrian Conflict & it won’t be the Last

contributors

By Thalif Deen | – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – Was the four-year-old military conflict in Syria, which has claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, mostly civilians, triggered at least in part by climate change? A new study by Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory says “a record drought that ravaged Syria in 2006-2010 was likely […]

Assyrians

Syria: Daesh/ ISIL takes 150 Christians Captive as 3,000 flee to Hasaka

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Al-Nahar (“The Day,” Beirut) reported that dozens of Assyrian Christians have been abducted by Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) in Hasakah Province, northeast Syria. Reuters later put the number at 150. The abduction occurred after heavy fighting by Kurdish YPG commandos that included allied Christian fighters versus Daesh attackers in […]

Christianity

Holy War: How Bill O’Reilly & Daesh/ ISIL Share The Same Goal

contributors

Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks) “Bill O’Reilly stated definitively, multiple times tonight, that he believes the United States and the world are in a “holy war” against ISIS and the White House needs to accept that fact. He said, “This is now a so-called holy war between radical jihadists and everyone else, including peaceful […]

Iraq

Just when you thought they Couldn’t be Worse: ISIL trafficking Human Organs

contributors

RT | – The Islamic State is harvesting human organs to finance its blood-driven caliphate, according to Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations, urging its Security Council to investigate the issue. Envoy Mohamed Alhakim called on the 15-member body to look at allegations of organ removal by the Islamic State (formerly ISIS) as bodies with […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syria: Dear Bashar al-Assad: Barrel Bombs Are No Laughing Matter

contributors

By Philippe Bolopion | (Human Rights Watch) | — It speaks volumes when the leader of a country feels emboldened to respond with humor when asked on television about a deadly weapon that is responsible for the deaths and maiming of thousands of his citizens. In a BBC interview broadcasted today, a confident Syrian President […]

Bush

Is ISIL’s ‘Shock and Awe’ more Awe-ful because One Victim?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) burning of a captured Jordanian pilot alive produced justified revulsion globally, resulting in the terrorist organization being termed “barbarous” and similar epithets. Why did it behave this way? Because it wants to terrify its opponents into submission and underline that it is too […]