Monday, August 27, 2018

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- August 27, 2018

The Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, left, with the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, at a press conference in June. Photograph: Alaa al-Marjani/Reuters

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, The Guardian: 'Iraq is dying': oil flows freely but corruption fuels growing anger

Locked out of polluting wealth beneath their feet, those calling for an end to a ‘rotten system’ risk detention and death

The land of the Bani-Mansour clan north-east of Basra is flat and parched, spattered with dry crusts of salt and thorny shrubs. Clusters of palm trees form small patches of green in the otherwise dusty yellow and brown landscape.

Nestled among them are about a dozen berms, each enclosing an oil well and its pump. Pipelines snake over the ground, cutting through villages as they connect wells and pumping stations. Oil rigs tower over the southern Iraq landscape, sending plumes of thick black smoke across the horizon.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- August 27, 2018

Will more sanctions drive Iran to a cyberattack? -- Justin Lynch, Fifth Domain  

UN tells of Myanmar genocide but are world powers listening? -- Simon Tisdall, The Guardian

Trump Iraq policy shows he's learned from past US mistakes -- Matthew Heiman, The Hill

Trump battles a sense of inertia in Afghanistan -- Rebecca Kheel, The Hill

El Salvador’s diplomatic switch to Beijing may hit economy and security throughout Americas, United States warns -- Sarah Zheng, SCMP

To Trump, ‘it’s not the right time to talk’ with China about trade war as he focuses on Nafta renegotiation -- Owen Churchill, SCMP

U.S. Needs More Focus on Terrorist Threat in Indonesia -- Alasdair Gordon, The Cipher Brief

Will ISIS make up for lost territory virtually? -- Mark Pomerleau, C4IRSNet

ISIS Is Ready for a Resurgence -- Hassan Hassan, The Atlantic

A new dawn or more of the same for Zimbabwe? -- Tendai Marima, Al Jazeera

Moscow, Kiev in tug-of-war over religious future of Ukraine -- Raphael Satter, AP

Russia, the victim? Opposite NATO’s eastern flank, it’s an expansionist West causing anxiety -- Matthew Bodner, Defense News

Life Without Water: Sweaty, Smelly, and Furious in Caracas -- Andrew Rosati, Bloomberg

“Fake News” and Unrest in Nicaragua -- John Lee Anderson, New Yorker

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