Ghaith Abdul-Ahad. This article frist appeared on London Review of Books volume 39, number9, May 5, 2017. On the morning of 5 March a group of soldiers belonging…
Posted Amnesty International May 24, 2017. The US Army failed to keep tabs on more than $1 billion worth of arms and other military equipment in Iraq and…
Tam Hussein, Joshua Landis blog. Posted by Tam Hussein on Friday, April 14th, 2017 @tamhussein I entered Najiyeh, a small town of no consequence, without their permission. The…
Yassin al-Haj Saleh, Al-Jumhurya. Even though the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS, or Da’esh) emerged in Syria in 2013, its structure can be traced back to…
Ali Mamouri, Al Monitor. Some factions of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) are less than satisfied with the visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to Washington on March 19-23,…
Mehdi Kia: In an earlier interview with Barabari television station you talked about the apparent change of direction in Trump administration’s foreign policy which you called “going beyond…
Paul Rogers. This report first appeared in Open Democracy on March 10, 2017 The west’s military focus has shifted towards covert use of special forces. Both the human…
Zaid Alisa, Open Democracy. This article first appeared in Open Democracy on March 10, 2017. The highly unexpected victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections sent…
Mohammad Ja’far, Libcom.org. Text of a talk by Mohammed Ja’far on the development of the Arab ruling classes during the 1960s and 1970s, their integration into the world…
Patrick Cockburn, London Review of Books. The nadir of Western media coverage of the wars in Iraq and Syria has been the reporting of the siege of East…
Charles Davis, Pulse. With right-wing authoritarians ruling in Moscow and Washington, leftists should find it easy to oppose these evil empires — but some, poisoned by pre-election contrarianism,…
Ardeshir Mehrdad. This article first appeared in iran-bulltin-Middle East Forum in November 2004. Despite its age, the arguments laid out are equally valid to day in the context…
David Bush, Counterfire. However confusing the situation in Syria, the anti-war movement provides political clarity, argues David Bush in his latest online post. There is major disorientation on…
Alan Woods, In Defence of Marxism. The saying goes that there are lies, damned lies and statistics. To this list we must add diplomacy, which is lying raised…
Tony Iltis, Green Left. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of an assault to recapture Mosul, the most important Iraqi city held by ISIS, on October…
Annia Ciezadlo, Souciant. As ISIS comes under increased attack in some of the region’s most fertile lands, Middle East agriculture researcher Eckart Woertz discusses how the militant group…
Owen Bennet-Jones, London Review of Books. Isis: A History by Fawaz A. Gerges Princeton; Isis: Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan, Regan Arts;…
Joseph Daher, New Politics. The last terrible terrorist attack by the so-called “Islamic State” (also known as Daech) killed at least 300 people in Baghdad’s central shopping district…
Semir Amin, Monthly Review. The political chaos that has recently dominated the scene in the Middle East is expressed, among other ways, by the violent resurgence of the…
Kim Dean, Middle East Eye. Erbil, Iraq – A small range of hills outside of Kirkuk has been the frontline with the Islamic State since the group fled…
Karim El-Bar, Middle East Eye. In wake of Arab Spring, Iran’s backing of foreign militias has drawn much attention. Why is this support so central to Iranian foreign…
International Crisis Group, Jadalyya. Beset by political dysfunction, endemic corruption and a jihadist threat, Iraq is squandering its greatest asset: its youth. By failing to provide a vision…
Dimitris Konstantakopoulos, Defend Democracy Press. ISIS is a criminal organization which was created, and is used, by the USA. As for Syria, it was not only the intervention…
Sean Ledwith, Counterfire. Recent events in both North America and the Middle East have illustrated how the chilling potency of the Islamic State group is far from exhausted….
Janet Biehl, Roar. A Road Unforseen: Women fight the Islamic State, by Meredith Tax. Second Wave feminism, once it erupted in the late 1960s, called out misogyny where…
Jeffrey St Clair Counter Punch The war on Iraq won’t be remembered for how it was waged so much as for how it was sold. It was a…
Dimitris Konstantakopoulos Defend Democracy Press Stop discussing about the roots of terrorism, stop debating our policies in the Middle East (and all the Third World, but those are…
Robin Yassin-Kassab Qunfuz A great deal has been written on the factors behind the rise of ISIS, or Daesh, in Iraq and Syria. Too much of the commentary…
Eddie J. Girdner Monthly Review Book review: Greg Muttitt, Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq. Greg Muttitt quotes an Iraqi friend who pointed out…
Andrew Bacevich Democracy Now When will the United States realize a military victory is impossible in the Middle East? Military historian Andrew Bacevich asks this question in his…
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