War

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Republican House Majority leader John Boehner secretly invited Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Washington to address Congress and then once it was set up he let Barack Obama know about it. The reason for bringing Netanyahu is that Boehner wants to craft a super-majority in Congress that […]

Featured

UN General Assembly Demands Israel Mothball its Nuclear Arsenal

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — The United Nations General Assembly (where all 193 countries in the world get a vote) has almost unanimously demanded that Israel give up its nuclear weapons and cooperate with making the Middle East a nuclear-free zone. The only dissenters were Israel and the United States, along with three small South […]

Afghanistan

What if it was Russia and China invading and Bombing? The Blindness of MSM and Washington

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt (Tomdispatch.com) | — Let’s play a game, the kind that makes no sense on this single-superpower planet of ours. For a moment, do your best to suspend disbelief and imagine that there’s another superpower, great power, or even regional power somewhere that, between 2001 and 2003, launched two major wars in the […]

Iraq

Unlikely Cavalry: Iraq’s Sunni Tribes Split on ISIL, Pursue own Feuds

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | via Niqash.org. Some tribes in the north of Iraq pledge allegiance to the extremist group, IS. In the south, tribes are divided as to whether to do this. The city of Anbar is becoming a battleground. But the fight is no longer as simple as the Iraqi government versus […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s Women: After 13 Years of War, the Rule of Men, Not Law

contributors

By Ann Jones via Tomdispatch.com On September 29th, power in Afghanistan changed hands for the first time in 13 years. At the Arg, the presidential palace in Kabul, Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as president, while the outgoing Hamid Karzai watched calmly from a front-row seat. Washington, congratulating itself on this “peaceful transition,” quickly collected the new […]

Colonialism

America didn’t learn the Lessons of Tribes & Counter-Insurgency in Vietnam, Leading to the Iraq Quagmire

contributors

By David Moore The rise of ISIL, as well as the resurgence of the Taliban, has brought numerous “experts” out to offer analyses on the best way to combat these developments. The consensus is to bomb and arm (or re-arm Sunni) groups to fight ISIL. Since I have written a book on insurgency and counter-insurgency […]

Iran

Netanyahu’s Nuclear Hypocrisy on Iran; In fact, Everyone in the ME needs to Disarm

contributors

By Farhad Malekafzali With negotiations to limit Iran’s enrichment in return for easing of economic sanctions on the verge of failure, hopes for a step-by-step diplomacy to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program are once again dashed. The decade old debate regarding Iran’s nuclear program has largely centered on denying Iran capacity to build nuclear weapons because […]

Afghanistan

Syria to Afghanistan: US Military Policy hasn’t Solved the Zone of Crisis & may Enlarge it

contributors

By Amin Saikal, author of Zone of Crisis: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq The Middle East and its wider eastern environs are in the grip of multiple humanitarian and geopolitical crises. The entire region from Pakistan and Afghanistan to Iraq and Syria to Palestine and Libya is shattered by more violence than usual and long-term […]

Iraq

Turkey’s Caution on ISIL War: “It’s far away for them but very close to us”

contributors

By Ali Murat Yel, Editor-in-Chief TurkeyAgenda In the United States the public has difficulty in understanding the reluctance of Turkey to join the international coalition that is going to war in the heart of the Middle East. But the answer is simple: it is a matter of geography. I still remember Turkish people’s reaction against […]