IRAQ Former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani died on Tuesday about a month shy of his 84th birthday. A high-ranking member of the Barzani family's Kurdistan Democratic Party, Talabani split from the KDP in 1975 to found the leftist Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. While they're currently collaborating in a unity government of sorts, the PUK remains … Continue reading Middle East update: October 3 2017

WORLD WAR III I was all set to roll my eyes out of my head when I saw this piece in Foreign Policy, headlined "Report: Hypersonic Missiles Could Trigger a War." But then I read the piece and, unfortunately, it actually makes a pretty good argument: Crunched for time with dire stakes, countries might adopt a … Continue reading World update: October 2 2017

IRAQ The Hawijah operation proceeded on Monday with the Iraqis capturing the Rashad air base, about 20 miles south of the town, from ISIS. Rashad is in a fairly strategic position for deploying helicopters to Hawijah and in cleanup operations around northern Iraq, so this is a positive development. Over the weekend, ISIS apparently set … Continue reading Middle East update: October 2 2017

SPAIN Let's talk about nationalism for a minute. Nationalism sucks. It's tribalistic, inherently discriminatory, often violent, exclusionary, and antithetical to values like liberty, egalitarianism, peace, and harmony. Nationalist parties are among the most loathsome political parties in the world: the National Front in France, Britain's UKIP and the Tory right, Alternative for Germany, Turkey's MTP, … Continue reading World update: September 30-October 1 2017

A few days ago I caused my decrepit middle-aged body to suffer a back injury that makes it hard to sit and write for long periods. I managed to get through a full update yesterday but it wasn't pleasant. I hope you'll be patient with me as I condense today's update, and writing time. MIDDLE … Continue reading Quick World update: September 29 2017

EUROPE RUSSIA Russia destroyed its remaining declared chemical weapons stockpiles today. More to the point, Russia held a major televised event at which it destroyed its remaining declared chemical weapons stockpiles. The purpose was less to destroy the weapons than to give Vladimir Putin a chance to criticize the United States for failing to destroy … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: September 27-28 2017

ASIA AFGHANISTAN Defense Secretary James Mattis visited Afghanistan on Wednesday, and either ISIS or the Taliban decided to welcome him to the country by firing rockets at Kabul's international airport after his flight touched down. Both groups claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed at least one civilian, wounded 11 more, and forced the airport … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: September 27-28 2017

ISIS ISIS released a new (?) audio recording from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Thursday. Baghdadi, assuming it was really him, offered the usual "keep fighting" pablum that these messages always include, but the real reason anybody listens to these things is in order to gain some clues into whether or not the guy is still … Continue reading Middle East update: September 27-28 2017

A relatively quick one tonight, it's been a long day. ASIA AFGHANISTAN Two bombings in western Afghanistan killed five Afghan police officers on Tuesday. Two were killed in Herat province and another three in Farah province. No one has claimed responsibility but these are likely Taliban joints given where they took place. Another police officer … Continue reading World update: September 26 2017

A relatively quick one tonight, it's been a long day. IRAQ The main story today is of course the Kurdish independence referendum, in which "yes" unsurprisingly won going away. Final results will be released Wednesday but the preliminary estimates suggest that "yes" may have pulled in 90 percent or more of the vote. As I've … Continue reading Middle East update: September 26 2017