Juan Cole

Juan Cole

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Juan R. I. Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. For three and a half decades, he has sought to put the relationship of the West and...

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Israel’s Gift to Iran’s Hard-Liners

Jun 11, 2010
Juan Cole, who offers the single best available running commentary on the Middle East, considers the ways in which, on the first anniversary of the fraudulent Iranian elections and the rise of the Green Movement, the policy moves of both the U.S. and Israel continued to backfire in Iran.

Juan Cole on ‘Democracy Now’

Aug 7, 2006
On Friday's "Democracy Now," the radio program's host, Amy Goodman, spoke with Mideast expert and Truthdig contributor Juan Cole, whom she asked about the recent protests in Iraq over Israel's incursion into Lebanon.

Juan Cole: Bush’s Open-Mike Comments Leave Me ‘Trembling’

Jul 17, 2006
The University of Michigan professor and Middle East expert is horrified at Bush's belief (caught on an open mike) that Hezbollah is entirely to blame for the violence wracking Lebanon, and that Syria could easily stop Hezbollah if it chose to do so "It is an astonishingly simple-minded view of the situation I come away from it shaken and trembling" .

Fishing for a Pretext to Squeeze Iran

Mar 14, 2006
Truthdig's Middle Eastern affairs expert argues that the Iranian nuclear issue "has not reached the point of crisis, and therefore other motivations must be sought for the Bush administration's breathless rhetoric." UPDATE: Cole says that Bush's recent linking of Iran to Iraqi roadside bombs is "wholly implausible."

The WWI Lessons We Haven’t Learned

Nov 11, 2018
While Trump is in Paris to commemorate the end of World War I, we should learn from that bloody episode that, among other things, we cannot credit politicians who promise us a short, glorious war.

When America Embraced Islamophobia

Oct 10, 2018
The Islamophobia that Donald Trump has made his own arose in the decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, once the boogeyman of Communism was removed from the quiver of the American right.

Trump Joke About Israel Reveals His Ignorance

Aug 22, 2018
In a conversation earlier this summer with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Trump reportedly said, "[In a one-state scenario,] the prime minister of Israel in a few years will be called Mohammed.”

Anthony Bourdain: The Only Mensch on Gaza

Jun 10, 2018
The late chef was the only major American celebrity who succeeded in publicly depicting Palestinians as rational, caring human beings rather than as irrationally angry inciters of violence.

The Ruinous War on Yemen

Mar 26, 2018
Saudi Arabia is dropping billions of dollars-worth of bombs supplied by the U.S. and the U.K. on Sana'a, the Yemen capital.

Saudi King Fires Army Chief, Officers

Feb 27, 2018
The government offers no explanation for the seismic upheaval in the Saudi officer corps, but it is widely believed that the palace is impatient with the Yemen war quagmire.

Did Trump Help Engineer the Saudi Soft Coup?

Jan 7, 2018
In his new book "Fire and Fury," Michael Wolff makes a number of allegations about the U.S. president's role in the Gulf crisis that, if true, help explain the mess in that part of the Middle East.

Trump’s Disastrous Year in Syria

Dec 26, 2017
Of all his (often contradictory) campaign promises, the president’s actions came closest to the version where he lets the key Middle Eastern country go to the Russians.

Was Jesus Basically a DACA Dreamer?

Dec 24, 2017
In today’s U.S., Dreamers are undocumented young people who were brought here as children—much as Christ's parents took him to Galilee. Should he have been deported?

The New Arab League Cold War

Nov 22, 2017
The organization is embroiled in internal strife among its 22 members, largely having to do with Iran’s role in the Middle East.