Month

Archives: August 2016

Trump, the Big Easy, and the Environment

By Arlie Russell Hochschild | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | - - [This essay has been adapted from Arlie Hochschild’s new book, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American…

America’s Shameful Record on Syrian Refugees

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The US government played a role in the collapse of Syria. It continually placed sanctions on this little country, including the 2003 Syrian…

US: Turkish-backed campaign against our Allies in Syria ‘unacceptable’

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - On Sunday evening, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told a rally in Gaziantep, a city near the border with Syria, “We will make any…

In Boon for EVs, Solar Panels, California will roll back CO2 Emissions to 40% Below 1990

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The California legislature worked on a carbon dioxide emissions reduction bill for a year, and is finally sending it to the governor for…

America’s Syria SNAFU: Pentagon’s Militias fight Turkey & CIA’s Militias

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Turkish incursion into Syria at Jarabulus was advertised as an attack on a Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) stronghold and smuggling station in conjunction…

The Russian Challenge to U.S. Policy in Africa

Gregory Alonso Pirio and Robert Pittelli | Informed Comment | - - The United States and its Western allies, for the most part, consider the Cold War long over, and with the…

French Court lifts Municipal Burkini Ban; & Why should you care what other people wear?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Nicolas Cadène, in an interview at L'Express analyzes the French court ruling issued Friday that struck down the ban by the mayor of…

ISIL sends families out of Mosul as Kurdish, Shiite Forces advance

ISIL sends families out of Mosul as Kurdish, Iraqi Army Forces advance

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Iraqi military forces have taken the strategic town of al-Qayarah near the major city of Mosul from Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). Mosul is the…

The Great Mexican Wall Deception

By Todd Miller | (Tomdispatch.com) | - - At the federal courthouse, Ignacio Sarabia asks the magistrate judge, Jacqueline Rateau, if he can explain why he crossed the international boundary between the…

Is Turkey’s incursion into Syria about Daesh, or about the Kurds?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Turkish military sources told the Anadol news agency that Wednesday's military attack on the Syrian border town of Jarabulus, held for years by…

Top 6 Reasons Turkey is Finally attacking ISIL in Syria’s Jarabulus

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Turkey and coalition allies launch air strikes Wednesday morning against the Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) stronghold of Jarabulus, on the Syrian side near the…

It Could Happen To You: How Trump Could Make America Less Democratic

By David M. Faris| (Informed Comment) | - - Could Donald Trump destroy American democracy? While he muses carelessly about assassinating Hillary Clinton and frequently spitballs plainly illegal ideas like inviting foreign…

The Short-Lived Russia-Iran Axis

By Michael G. Roskin | (Informed Comment) | - - Russian use of an Iranian airbase led some to see a Russia-Iran axis. They jumped the gun and surmised too much. In…

Gilbert Achcar, Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising

Notice: Gilbert Achcar, Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising In this eagerly awaited book, foremost Arab world and international affairs specialist Gilbert Achcar analyzes the factors of the regional relapse. Focusing…

Is Turkey’s Pivot to Russia about Erdogan’s Survival?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Turkey's prime minister, Yildirim Binali, has announced a significant about-face in Turkey's Syria policy. Murat Yetkin writes: " “The most important priority for…

US-Allied Kurds advance in Hasaka City, NE Syria

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Clashes continued on Sunday between the Kurdish YPG [People's Protection Units] and the Syrian Arab Army in Hasaka, according to the Egyptian press…

Ex-president Saleh offers ‘all Yemen’s facilities’ to Russia

By Brian Whitaker | ( al-Bab.com) | - - In a TV interview today, Yemen's ex-president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, appeared to invite Russian military intervention in the country's conflict. He talked of…

Israel planning new Squatter settlement near Bethlehem to ‘cut Palestine’s West Bank in two’

Ma'an News Agency | - - RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- Israeli authorities have been conducting a land survey in the southern occupied West Bank near Bethlehem in order to declare state lands to…

The Republicans who fear that Trump isn’t Belligerent Enough

By Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | - - What Does It Mean When War Hawks Say, “Never Trump”? The Enemies of My Enemy May Be War Criminals By Rebecca Gordon…

Saudis bomb Sanaa during “Million-Person march”

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Houthi Ansarullah Movement that controls most of north and west Yemen staged what was by all accounts an enormous demonstration in the…

Juan Cole, “The Idea of Peace in the Qur’an” (Kluge Center Blog)

Juan Cole | Library of Congress | John W. Kluge Center | - - The past summer I had an appointment at the John W. Kluge Center that allowed for research in…

Near-War: US Planes almost tangle with Syrian MiGs, which bombed area of US troop Embeds

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The fighting that has broken out between Kurdish YPG fighters and the Syrian Arab Army in Hasaka, northeast Syria, is hardly a new…

Merkel: Migrants did not bring Radical Terrorism to Germany

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a campaign event on Wednesday evening, that there is no relationship between the influx of some one…

Five truths about the Hijab (Muslim Veil) that need to be told

By Peter Hopkins | (The Conversation) | - - Rio 2016 is proving not just to be a platform for sporting prowess, it is also helping to shake up some traditionally-held cultural…

Gaza power plant runs out of fuel amid longstanding electricity crisis

Ma'an News Agency | - - GAZA (Ma’an)-- The besieged Gaza Strip’s only power plant announced on Thursday that it was unable to operate on more than one generator after exhausting its…

The Haunting Image of a Syrian Boy Who’s Only Known War

TeleSur | - - The image is haunting: A boy sits silent and stone-still in an ambulance, hands resting in his lap, his feet dangling from the chair as though suspended in…

Sanders: Aetna’s Obamacare threat shows what Corporate Control Looks Like

By Nika Knight, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) | - - Aetna threatened federal government with withdrawal from Affordable Care Act if controversial merger didn't go through, new reporting reveals Aetna CEO Mark…

Economic Damage from Civil War Costs poverty-stricken Yemen $14 Billion

TeleSur | - - The civil war in Yemen has caused a humanitarian disaster. The cost from damage to infrastructure and economic losses in Yemen's civil war is more than $14 billion…

Dragon Rising? China seeks Closer military Cooperation with Syria

By Juan Cole | Informed Comment | - - The Arabic press is reporting that a high Chinese official on a visit to Damascus has announced that Beijing intends to strengthen its…

Israelis raze homes near Hebron, Bethlehem, Palestine, leaving 70 Palestinians homeless

Ma'an News Agency | - - HEBRON (Ma’an) -- More than 50 Palestinians of the same extended family, including several children, were left homeless Tuesday morning after Israeli forces demolished eight homes…

Does this Change Everything? Russia’s first strikes on Syria from Iran Airbases

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Russian bombers for the first time have taken off from bases in Iran to carry out air strikes on rebel targets in Syria.…

Evangelical Lutheran Church Votes to Divest from Israeli Occupation

by Anna Baltzer, US Campaign to End the Occupation | IMEMC | - - On Friday, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted overwhelmingly — by an estimated 90% — to…

Trump and Extreme Vetting of Muslims

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - In an attempt at a foreign policy speech in Youngstown, Ohio, on Monday, Donald Trump attempted to get back to his fearmongering roots…

Top 5 Ways Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad is a Better American than Trump

Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first American woman athlete to compete in the Olympics wearing the hijab or Muslim head-covering, is a fatal complication to Donald Trump's Islamophobia. Opening Ceremonies! One of the best…

2 out of 5 Palestinian youth in Israeli-occupied Palestine unemployed

Ma'an News Agency | - - BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Two out of five Palestinian youth were unemployed during the first quarter of 2016, according to data recently released by the Palestinian Central…

10 Children Killed in Saudi Airstrike on Yemeni School

TeleSur | - - The Saudi-led coalition admitted children were at the site of the airstrike but jets “don’t distinguish ages” during attacks. At least 10 Yemeni children were killed in a…

People in Syria’s Manbij Rejoice by Shaving, throwing off Veil as ISIL fighters Flee

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - People in Syria's norther town of Manbij, now entirely liberated from the rule of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), rejoiced on Saturday. Men shaved their…

Climate Change Terror as Deserts Bury 2/3s of African Lands

By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | - - ROME, (IPS) - Two-thirds of the African continent is already desert or dry-lands. But while this vast extension of the second largest…

ISIL fighter number falls to 15,000 as Manbij capture Cuts off Route to Europe

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | AP is reporting that Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland maintains that the number of ISIL fighters in Syria and Iraq is in steep decline, having fallen…

Monsters to Destroy: Top 7 Reasons the US could not have forestalled Syrian Civil War

by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The interventionist temptation, muted since the Iraq imbroglio, is now returning. Sec. Clinton's team are already talking about taking steps to remove Syrian…

If the Military had Permission to Speak Freely: They might rescue us from the Politicians’ Forever War

By William J. Astore | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - The United States is now engaged in perpetual war with victory nowhere in sight. Iraq is chaotic and scarred. So, too, is…

How labor’s decline opened door to billionaire Trump as ‘savior’ of American workers

By Raymond Hogler | (The Conversation) | - - Out of the economic maelstrom of the last decade, Donald Trump has emerged as the improbable, and self-proclaimed, champion of American workers. And…

No, Obama did not found ISIL, Mr. Trump: That was the GOP

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Trump in his daily free association exercise accused President Obama of creating Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) in Iraq by withdrawing troops from that country…

Imitating Congolese Trump threatens Sec. Clinton with Gun Nuts

Trump threatens Sec. Clinton with Gun Nuts, imitates Tinpot 3rd World Regimes

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Donald Trump said Tuesday there was nothing that his supporters could do if Hillary Clinton won and got "to pick her judges." Then…

A Sucker is born Every Minute: Our Election From Hell

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | - - Yep, it finally happened. In early May, after a long, long run, the elephants of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey…

The Economic Crisis of Greying World: 30 Countries have more Elderly than Children

By Joseph Chamie | (Inter Press Service) | - - NEW YORK (IPS) - It first happened in Italy in 1995. Five years later it happened in six additional countries, Bulgaria, Germany,…

Gaza Strip: Blockade Causing an End to Fresh Water Resources

By IMEMC News | - - International Solidarity Movement | Gaza Team | - - As every year, during the summer, the water shortage in the Gaza Strip is accentuated. At the…

Google Sparks Outrage by Abolishing Palestine on Maps

TeleSur | - - Google's decision to wipe Palestine from its map app and portray the occupied territories as Israel sparks online protest campaign. Journalists and activists have excoriated Google for wiping…

Looming Aleppo Battle indicts both sides of Civil War for breaking Cease-Fire

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The only thing worse than the new hero status of now-covert al-Qaeda operative Abu Muhammad al-Julani and his Army of Syrian Conquest (ASC)…

On 71st Anniversary of Hiroshima, the Fear of a Nuclear Trump

TeleSur | - - Donald Trump also recently asked a national security expert three times why, since the US has nuclear weapons, it can’t use them. Japan marked the 71st anniversary of…

Will Syria Issue derail Turkey-Russia Rapprochement?

By Abbas Djavadi | ( RFE/RL ) | - - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan travels to St. Petersburg on August 9 to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. They will focus…

Iowa could go 100% Green with Wind in only 14 years, w/ Few Birds Killed, Mr. Trump

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Iowa gets 31% of its electricity from wind turbines, the highest percentage in the nation (though Texas generates more than twice as many…

Democrats Are Still Divided on Israel, But Clinton Runs Way to the Right

By Naomi Dann | Foreign Policy in Focus | (Originally published in Lobelog) Some see Democratic VP pick Tim Kaine as a promising counterbalance to Clinton's hawkishness. Following Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s exit as…

Syria: Key ISIL Smuggling city, Manbij, falls to Kurd-Arab Force

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Syrian War is nowhere near over, but the Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) episode may be drawing to an end. Alarabiya reports that the…

ISIL Captures Thousands trying to flee it in Iraq, Executes a Dozen

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Oman Daily's Jabbar al-Rubaie reports that Iraqi security sources announced yesterday that Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) had executed a number of the residents…

Nagasaki, 1945: “The world did not need your experiment”

By H. Patricia Hynes | (Informed Comment) | - - Kyoko Hayashi nearly died on August 9, 1945 in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. She was fourteen years old and working at…

Obama not only did not pay Iran Ransom, he denied Iran Billions it had Coming to It

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Zack Beauchamp at Vox has a very clear explanation of why the $400 million the US paid to Iran in January was not…

The Decay of American Politics: Pseudo-Election 2016

By Andrew J. Bacevich | (Tomdispatch.com) | - - My earliest recollection of national politics dates back exactly 60 years to the moment, in the summer of 1956, when I watched the…

Donald “Dr. Strangelove” Trump and some of the Times We almost had a Nuclear War

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - I have long wondered why no one in Hollywood has remade Stanley Kubricks's 1964 "Dr. Strangelove: Or How I learned to Stop worrying…

Dear Trumpists: Khizr Khan is not ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ and it wouldn’t matter if he Were

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - A Trump adviser is trying to smear Khizr Khan, the Pakistani-American legal consultant who spoke at the DNC, as a "Muslim Brotherhood agent."…

#CanYouHearUsNow: Muslim Women Lambast Trump’s Orientalism

TeleSur | - - Muslim women activists took to social media to take a stand against the Republican candidate’s bigoted drudgery. Muslim-Americans Khizr and Ghazala Khan, parents of the late Army Capt.…

Black Lives Matter Protests in Palestine

TeleSur | - - BLM argued that police violence and killings against Black people in the U.S. are connected to the decades-long Israeli oppression of Palestinians. Activists from the Black Lives Matter…

6 Signs the Big Global Switch to Solar has already Begun

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - China has installed 20 gigawatts of new solar power just in the first half of this year. This achievement beats analysts' expectations by…

Pope and French Muslims try Muslim-Christian outreach instead of ‘War on Terror’ Polarization

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - AFP reported from the papal airplane on Pope Francis's remarks about Islam in the wake of the brutal murder of an elderly priest…

Israel jailing more and more Palestinian Minors without Charges or Trial

Ma'an News Agency | - - BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli human rights group B’Tselem released a report Thursday evening revealing that Israeli authorities have steadily increased their use of administrative detention --…

Donald Trump Knows Nothing About Muslims

By Joseph Richard Preville | (Informed Comment) | - - I am an American professor living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Like millions of people around the world, I watched both…