Before you read this, if you haven't already, please check out the fine writing to be found in the "Jon Swift Memorial Roundup 2015" over at Vagabond Scholar. Something of mine is listed there alongside a number of other great pieces. I actually find it almost physically painful to write self-referential things, a fact that … Continue reading attwiw’s 10 best-read posts of 2015

Zahran Alloush, Syrian rebel bigshot and leader of the Jaysh al Islam ("Army of Islam") rebel faction, which is active in the Damascus neighborhoods of Douma and Eastern Ghouta and forms the backbone of the "Islamic Front" rebel coalition, is tragically* no longer among the living: The commander of one of the most powerful Syrian … Continue reading If this is what passes for “moderate”…

Zahran Alloush, Syrian rebel bigshot and leader of the Jaysh al Islam ("Army of Islam") rebel faction, which is active in the Damascus neighborhoods of Douma and Eastern Ghouta and forms the backbone of the "Islamic Front" rebel coalition, is tragically* no longer among the living: The commander of one of the most powerful Syrian … Continue reading If this is what passes for “moderate”…

I'm going to leave you with one last thing before I hopefully go (mostly) quiet for the next couple of days, and it's my latest for LobeLog, on the subject of David Albright. If you're not deeply enmeshed in the Iran debate then you may not know who Albright is, but he runs an organization … Continue reading The IAEA moves the Iran deal forward

Remember that story I mentioned around here a couple of weeks ago, the one about the Spanish treasure galleon (the San José) whose 18th century wreckage was just discovered off the coast of Colombia? Yesterday, Africa is a Country published an interesting piece about the provenance and the proper destination of that find by Camilo … Continue reading The qualities of empire

Protests have continued among Ethiopia's Oromo community, and while the government is still insisting that only five people have been killed, independent estimates have put the rising death toll at somewhere around 75 people. The State Department interjected itself into the situation on Friday, expressing its "concern" over the deaths and "urg[ing] the government of … Continue reading Death toll mounts in Ethiopian violence

The Iraqi air force began dropping leaflets on Ramadi yesterday, advising civilians to amscray in advance of an all-out assault to liberate the city. That assaukt appears to have begun, with Iraqi forces reportedly moving into the center of the city earlier today. ISIS may be (probably is, let's be honest) preventing civilians from leaving, … Continue reading Attack on Ramadi has begun

Last week's Yemen peace talks in Switzerland have ended without making much progress, in part due to the fact that the ceasefire that was to accompany those talks never actually took hold. Saudi-Yemeni government forces today advanced closer to Yemen's capital, Sanaa, than they've been since the Houthis captured the city last fall, in spite … Continue reading Yemen: the ceasefire that wasn’t, but progress at peace talks