It appears that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is the latest person to try, and fail, to broker some kind of accord between Burundian opposition groups and the ruling CNDD-FDD party in advance of Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza's attempt to win a constitutionally-questionable third term in office next week. That vote was supposed to happen today, … Continue reading Burundi inexorably marches toward trouble

I can't vouch for how accurate this is, but there's a report that the Syrian army is a mere 3.5 kilometers outside of Palmyra and may be planning to mount an attack to retake the ancient city from ISIS. You're not likely to find many examples of yours truly rooting for Assad, but this is … Continue reading Rooting for one of the bad guys just a little bit

So, earlier I told you I had no hot take to offer about the Iran deal. But now I've had a chance to read the whole document (well, I maybe skipped the lists) and digest some of the early arguments both for and against it, so... This is a good deal. By that I don't … Continue reading Now that the deal has been struck, what happens next?

During her incredibly prolific career as a scholar of Islamic history, philosophy, and theology, Patricia Crone wrote or co-wrote some of the most indispensable works in the Islamic studies canon. You simply can't talk about the Caliphal military, for example, without reading her Slaves on Horses, and you can't talk about how the early Islamic … Continue reading Patricia Crone, 1945-2015

As it turns out, that UN-brokered humanitarian ceasefire in Yemen that I wrote about on Friday never actually took hold. The reason why is so surreal that it would be funny if there were no body count attached to it: A week-long pause in fighting was meant to have started on Saturday to allow humanitarian … Continue reading About that ceasefire…

If Donald stays the course, this could actually be an entertaining campaign: https://twitter.com/GissiSim/status/621027104545730560 Here's the picture in question: And the close-up: https://twitter.com/GissiSim/status/621028867017428992 People who know their German WWII uniforms much better than yours truly say that these are SS uniforms. Trump appears to have used this stock photo, so at least they're SS re-enactors and … Continue reading President Trump apparently hires Leni Riefenstahl as his Communications Director

I just listened in to a conference call sponsored by a couple of organizations that are in favor of the Iran deal, and one of the participants made the point that we shouldn't assume that anyone who opposes this deal is doing so because they're out for war with Iran. There are definitely areas in … Continue reading Consider the context of that hot Iran take

I realize that Rick Wiles is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, nor is he above, let's say, some creative exaggeration for effect. But still, you have to be pretty rockheaded and/or disingenuous to get from "allowing transgender people to serve openly in the US military" to "America’s new transvestite army," right? And the … Continue reading How do they fight in those pumps?

The full-text of the Iran agreement (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA) has been posted online by the EU here. I've been reading it bit by bit all morning, and so far it seems to align with the fact sheet that was put out by the State Department after the initial framework was … Continue reading So that’s done

The UN has announced a week-long humanitarian ceasefire in Yemen that will run through next Friday, corresponding with the end of Ramadan. If it holds, this offers the possibility of some desperately needed assistance reaching the people of Yemen, who are obviously suffering tremendously as the civil war there continues with no end in sight. … Continue reading A little welcome good news