US politics

( Tomdispatch.com) – They weren’t kidding when they called Afghanistan the “graveyard of empires.” Indeed, that cemetery has just taken another imperial body. And it wasn’t pretty, was it? Not that anyone should be surprised. Even after 20 years of preparation, a burial never is. In fact, the shock and awe(fulness) in Kabul and Washington […]

African-Americans

Southern White Male GOP Voter Suppression, anti-Abortion Laws are ways of reviving Jim Crow and expanding it to White Women

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – African-Americans have complained about the tendency of commentators to compare political suppression and regressive policies of white Republicans to slavery. Nothing, they rightly maintain, is like slavery. But some GOP laws passed by elite white males are very much like Jim Crow-style discrimination. Voter i.d. laws, for instance, are completely […]

African-Americans

The Labor Day Dreams of Black Workers

Inequality.org

By Marc Bayard, Sarah Anderson and Rebekah Entralgo | – As our second pandemic Labor Day approaches, Black worker leaders are determined to never again bear the brunt of a national crisis as they have under Covid-19. At least four U.S. employees have now been killed as they tried to enforce mask mandates — and […]

Arab World

Don’t Compare Texas Abortion law to Islamic Law: Most Muslims are and have been More Liberal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Texas “heartbeat law” banning abortion after six weeks has prompted comparisons of Texas evangelicals to Afghanistan’s Taliban. There is a resemblance globally of religious-Right movements on women’s issues, since religious conservatism is usually patriarchal and aims at controlling women. If, however, the comparison is between Christianity and Islam in […]

Afghanistan

Will the End of the Afghanistan War provoke Reconsideration of American Militarism?

Foreign Policy in Focus

By David Bacon | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Many in the U.S. media continue to credit the good intentions of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, while belaboring its failure over 20 years to achieve any of them. But to say that the United States wanted a progressive, liberal democratic, and secular government […]

Climate Crisis

Why We Need Electric Cars: Climate-driven Hurricane Ida Knocked out Gulf Oil Production, 1/5 of US Refinery Capacity

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Louisiana’s petroleum refineries are out of action in the wake of Hurricane Ida. Refineries run on electricity, and electricity has been knocked out in New Orleans and environs, perhaps for another couple of weeks. Here’s the kicker: Louisiana refineries account for nearly 1/5 of America’s refining capacity. Raw crude oil […]

Afghanistan

Calculating the costs of the Afghanistan War in lives, dollars and years

The Conversation

By Neta C. Crawford | – The U.S. invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 to destroy al-Qaida, remove the Taliban from power and remake the nation. On Aug. 30, 2021, the U.S. completed a pullout of troops from Afghanistan, providing an uncertain punctuation mark to two decades of conflict. For the past 11 years I have […]

Afghanistan

Biden: Afghanistan Withdrawal is “about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced the end of the war in Afghanistan. I saw the Neoconservative Bill Kristol on CNN deploring Biden’s speech for not assessing the sweep of the war. Kristol was the biggest warmonger of all the pundits in the early zeroes, arguing for invading and occupying […]

Afghanistan

Out of Afghanistan: Joe Biden and the future of America’s foreign policy

The Conversation

By Andrew Mumford | – As the last US forces leave Afghanistan, President Joe Biden’s decision to press ahead with the American withdrawal has prompted the first major foreign policy crisis of his presidency. The harrowing pictures after the bombing attack at Kabul airport were the result of a desire on behalf of Biden to […]