Reuters is reporting that Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi "has delayed" the operation to retake Fallujah, owing to strong ISIS resistance and a fear of unnecessarily endangering the civilians who are trapped in the city: Abadi's decision to halt, two days after elite Iraqi troops poured into the city's rural southern outskirts, postpones what was expected … Continue reading Fallujah offensive delayed

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), with embedded US Special Forces and anti-ISIS coalition air support, are advancing on the "Manbij pocket," the last ISIS-controlled zone along the Syria-Turkey border: The operation, which only just started to get underway on Tuesday and could take weeks to complete, aims to choke off Islamic State's access to Syrian … Continue reading Cutting off ISIS’s access to Turkey

In an operation that looks like the twin brother (sister?) of the SDF's recent activity north of Raqqa, in Syria, American Special Forces are embedded with Kurdish Peshmerga in an operation that is approaching, but will likely stop short of, the city of Mosul, in Iraq: The operation is the largest by the Kurds in … Continue reading The second Iraqi front

After over a year of US-abetted Saudi brutality in Yemen, the Obama administration has finally decided to do the literal least it could do: Frustrated by a growing death toll, the White House has quietly placed a hold on the transfer of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia as the Sunni ally continues its bloody war … Continue reading Better late than never? Or just too late?

Iraqi forces are reportedly in the midst of a "final assault" to dislodge ISIS from the city of Fallujah: State forces including members of an elite counter-terrorism unit are moving into Falluja on several fronts, an official statement said on Monday. The Iraqi air force and international coalition jets are carrying out air strikes in … Continue reading Difference of degrees

The largely Kurdish and very American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces are pushing south, out of the historically Kurdish northern enclaves where they've operated previously, toward ISIS's "capital city," Raqqa. ISIS appears to have predicted this offensive, at least it does if you can believe US military reports of a couple of weeks ago suggesting that the … Continue reading The road to Raqqa

There are signs--tentative signs--that Iran and Saudi Arabia are going to settle their beef enough for Iranian pilgrims to make this year's Hajj after all: Saudi Arabia said talks on Wednesday with visiting Iranian delegates on arrangements for hajj pilgrims from the Islamic republic have been "positive". Earlier this month, Tehran said "arrangements have not … Continue reading Crisis of faith averted?

Again, I’m trying to get back to some regular blogging after an extended break. But in order to do that, I’ve got to make some sense of what’s been going on while I’ve been away–for my own sake far more than for yours. This is part of a series of pieces in which I’ll try … Continue reading Catching up: Turkey

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party spent a cool half-million dollars (for reference, Zimbabwe's per-capita GDP is less than $1000) organizing what was to be a "Million Man March" through the capital city of Harare in support of Mugabe's continued rule over the country. They missed their target slightly: Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans … Continue reading Million Man Meh

One of the big takeaways from that New York Times Magazine profile of Ben Rhodes earlier this month was Rhodes's description of the DC foreign policy establishment, which he called "The Blob": One result of this experience was that when Rhodes joined the Obama campaign in 2007, he arguably knew more about the Iraq war … Continue reading Enter The Blob