Looks like he decided not to contest Abadi's nomination in the courts after all: He said his decision was aimed at preserving the country's "unity". "I announce before you today, to ease the movement of the political process and the formation of the new government, the withdrawal of my candidacy in favour of brother Dr … Continue reading Maliki out

Ross Pelin, of the Endangered Language Alliance, has a good piece at Foreign Policy on what IS's campaign in Iraq is doing to the Aramaic language: Despite U.S. airstrikes in recent days, IS still holds the heartland of Aramaic, now emptied of its original inhabitants. "The threat to the Christian Neo-Aramaic-speaking population of northern Iraq … Continue reading Are we watching the death of Aramaic?

I haven't commented on the terrible events unfolding in Ferguson because I think I'm self-aware enough to know when my own life experiences leave me unable to really understand the deeper issues at play. I have deep concerns about the militarization of local police forces in this country, about America's ongoing problem with respect to … Continue reading Good reads about Ferguson

Nouri al-Maliki has been quietly overseeing a very Assad-esque assault on civilians in IS-held areas, including Bashar's old standby, the barrel bomb: Sheikh Mohammed al-Bajari, a member of the interim local council of Fallujah, said the battles fought by the army and security forces in Anbar lack ethical and professional standards. He told Al-Monitor over … Continue reading First order of business for the new Iraqi PM

Ukraine continues to be under-covered, which isn't really anybody's fault given what's happening in Iraq and in Gaza, again, but it still unfortunate. Barring some dramatic military move by Russia, it seems like the separatist movement is all but finished; the most important rebel stronghold, Donetsk, is reportedly on the verge of falling to Kiev, … Continue reading You would think that a militia flying a Nazi flag in Ukraine would get more attention

Iraq may not be heading for a coup after all: After two days of defiance and the deployment of special security units around the Iraqi capital that raised the specter of a coup, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki on Tuesday appeared to back away from his implied threat of using military force to secure his … Continue reading Good News Watch II: Iraq

Megan McArdle thinks that the country would have been better off if Hillary Clinton had been elected president. The title of her column today at Bloomberg View, "When Obama Beat Hillary, We All Lost," couldn't be clearer. McArdle contends that Clinton would have been more cautious in dealing with Republicans, been satisfied with limited progress … Continue reading Megan McArdle tells a tall tale

Good news is hard to come by these days, so let's savor whatever we can get: Two doctors in Liberia will be the first Africans to receive an experimental treatment for Ebola that has been previously only been used on two Americans and a Spaniard, Liberian officials announced on Monday. The decision comes on the … Continue reading Good News Watch: Ebola

Late last week, fighters affiliated with ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra reportedly pulled out of the town of Arsal, located in northeastern Lebanon near its border with Syria, after holing up there for five days and engaging in heavy fighting with Lebanese forces. At least 42 civilians were killed in the fighting along with 17 Lebanese … Continue reading Lebanon’s latest brush with Syria’s civil war