Turkey seems to have had a change of heart over Kobani: Turkey’s foreign minister said Monday that the country would facilitate the movement of Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as pesh merga, to the embattled Syrian town of Kobani to join the fighting there. At a news conference in Ankara, the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, … Continue reading And we didn’t even have to destroy NATO to do it

Republican legislators who have criticized President Obama's use of unconfirmed "czars" demand the appointment of an "Ebola czar." This Ebola czar's job would be pretty much what the Surgeon General should be doing right now, only the country doesn't have a Surgeon General at the moment because Republican legislators won't allow a vote on Obama's … Continue reading Everything you need to know about this Congress in one story

Two people have contracted Ebola in the United States, so obviously it's time to panic: While we flail around proposing counterproductive policy like flight bans to and from West Africa and pointless gibberish like "close the Mexican border to keep the Ebola terrorists out," one debate worth having is, you know, how do you like … Continue reading BREAKING: Nice things cost money

The BBC is reporting that Daesh is being "driven out" of the areas of Kobani that it had previously occupied: Speaking by phone, Kurdish commander Baharin Kandal told the BBC's Kasra Naji that she hoped the city would be "liberated soon". Ms Kandal said her militia group had been receiving arms, supplies and fighters but … Continue reading Tide turned in Kobani?

For once, let's talk about Iran without bringing up the elephant in the room, by which obviously I mean the shocking revelation that Iranians seem to regularly have and even enjoy sex. No, wait, I mean the nuclear talks. The nuclear talks. Let's ignore them for today. Iran has a serious religious freedom problem. The … Continue reading America’s Middle Eastern hypocrisy, part infinity of infinity

I have a new piece up today on the Turkey-Koboni-Kurd saga. Turkey has no interest in lifting a finger that might help the Kurds, which puts them (kind of) at odds with the United States, but let's just say I'm skeptical about the neocon right's plans to punish Turkey for the transgression of not doing … Continue reading Talking Turkey at LobeLog

The New York Times has published a dynamite investigative report into the negligent and/or deliberate exposure of U.S. soldiers to Saddam Hussein's stockpile of rusted out 1970s and 80s-era chemical munitions in the aftermath of the Iraq War: The United States had gone to war declaring it must destroy an active weapons of mass destruction … Continue reading Please stop missing the point on the Iraqi chemical weapons story

While I remain pessimistic about the current state of the nuclear negotiations, if anything could get the Iranians to budge on uranium enrichment, it would be the impact of falling oil prices on the Iranian economy: Iran's economy, weakened by years of mismanagement and Western sanctions, has enjoyed something of a resurgence in recent months. … Continue reading Falling oil prices might salvage Iran talks