Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

By Juan Cole In a new Pew/ USA Today poll, the American public shows itself alarmed by the rise of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in northern Iraq and Syria as a threat to US security, finding it more threatening even than Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who has risen on the villain […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syrian Rebels welcome US Air strikes on ISIL Terrorists

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Ilaf reports that rebels in East Aleppo, Syria are deeply divided over the prospect of President Obama ordering US air strikes on the so-called “Islamic State” (IS). IS is vicious and has spent most of the past 18 months studiously avoiding actually fighting the Baath government of Syria, concentrating instead on destroying […]

Iraq

Why Would They Stay? Making Sense of ISIS and Iraqi Sunnis

contributors

By Nathan Spannaus ISIS’s meteoric rise to prominence has brought renewed attention on Iraq’s Sunni population and their relationship with radical forms of extremism. Outside of Iraq, the condemnations of ISIS have been frequent. In light of its recent media notoriety, dozens of governments and institutions within the Islamic world have spoken out against the […]

Iraq

Veils, Gloves and Violence: New Extremist Rules See Women Disappear From Mosul’s Streets

contributors

By Nawzat Shamdeen | Mosul | via Niqash.org Extremists are forcing Mosul’s women to wear full facial veils. Mosul was always a conservative city when it came to women’s rights. However the Sunni Muslim extremists who took control of the town have made it even more difficult for females. Women must now wear facial veils […]

al-Qaeda

Has the War on Terror Failed?

contributors

AJ+ “Has the West’s global “War on Terror” failed? Thirteen years of U.S. counter-terrorism policies have opened up a Pandora’s box of questions – both political and ideological.” Aj+ Has the War on Terror Failed?

Featured

Iraq: Bombs & Bullets vs. Political Process

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole A series of bombings and shootings left some 35 dead in Iraq on Saturday, following on a massacre of 68 worshipers Friday at a Sunni Mosque in mixed Diyala Province. This violence was strategic, not random. One side effect was a severe setback in the attempt of Haydar al-Abadi, the prime minister […]

Barack Obama

Obama’s budding Cambodia Policy in Syria

Juan Cole

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 […]

Islam

Failed US War on Terror resulted from bizarre search for Moderate Jihadis

contributors

By Patrick Cockburn via Tomdispatch.com [This essay is excerpted from the first chapter of Patrick Cockburn’s new book, The Jihadis Return: ISIS and the New Sunni Uprising, with special thanks to his publisher, OR Books. The first section is a new introduction written for TomDispatch.] There are extraordinary elements in the present U.S. policy in Iraq and Syria that […]