Professor Juan Cole explains the splits and similarities inside the Shi’ite political factions in Iraq, the recent Sadr-inspired protests, accusations that Sadr is the tool of Iran, how our government lies when they blame American deaths on Iran-backed militias, tensions between the governments of Kurdistan and Turkey and the ability of local powers to work out their own problems.
MP3 here. (28:28)
Juan R. I. Cole is Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the University of Michigan. He has written extensively about modern Islamic movements in Egypt, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. His most recent book is Sacred Space and Holy War. His blog, Informed Comment, is a widely read source for Middle East news and commentary.
Scott Horton is editorial director of Antiwar.com, director of the Libertarian Institute and host of the Scott Horton Show
from ScottHorton.org. He’s the author of the 2017 book, Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan, the 2021 book Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism and the 2024 book Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine, and editor of The Great Ron Paul: The Scott Horton Show Interviews 2004–2019
and Hotter Than the Sun: Time to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. He’s conducted more than 6,000 interviews since 2003. Scott lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, investigative reporter Larisa Alexandrovna Horton. He is a fan of, but no relation to the lawyer from Harper’s
.
Scott’s Twitter, YouTube, Patreon, Substack.
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