Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Here we go again. We need your help and generosity. The United States has apparently entered another Forever War, this time against Iran. Developments since the Netanyahu-Trump war of aggression on Iran began on February 28, 2026, have been mind-boggling complex, and the American public has once again been poorly served by a mainstream media owned by a handful of billionaire oligarchs. I am one of the few American historians of modern Iran, and at this blog I am joined by other Middle East experts in an attempt to explain to you, the American public, what is going on.
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Juan Cole
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Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
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Sanctioning Iran: A Nietzschean Theory of Negative Imperialism via Schuler’s Books in Ann Arbor (a good place to order all your books). I was invited to give this talk, which was published as a booklet, a few years ago, and I maintain that it provides a key piece to the puzzle of American relations with Iran and of the current war.
I never expected to see the US naval base at Manama, Bahrain, destroyed by Iran — rendered, in Pentagonese, “inoperable.” I knew that if Israel and the US attacked Iran, it would cause gasoline and diesel prices to spike. But I didn’t imagine that both the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea’s Bab al-Mandeb would see substantial interference with shipping all at once. I did not think we would see a worldwide shortage of fertilizer, the full effects of which have yet to be felt (it will cause widespread foot shortages, perhaps starvation). The resilience of the Iranian government comes as no surprise to me, but apparently Tel Aviv and Washington expected it to fold within days.
One thing is clear: This war is not over, and its full, disastrous effects have yet to be felt. Nor is the Israeli genocide against Gaza over, or the attempt to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian West Bank or southern Lebanon. We cover these flashpoints when others either ignore them or paper over their reality.
Informed Comment lives up to its name in these perilous times.
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Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:
Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)
All American institutions — cities, universities, states, hospitals, newspapers and other media — are being stress-tested by an un-American extremism that has captured all three branches of the federal government. Informed Comment will stand for the Constitution when others bend. And while we are small potatoes — the blog of a Midwestern college teacher — we can hope to model what a peaceful, reasoned standing of our ground looks like. Please help us do that, and please join the nonviolent struggle of noncooperation
