Archives for February 2004

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Scott Taylor reports on his bad experiences with the security situation in Iraq, painting a pretty scary picture of the situation in Baghdad and points north. But just to underline how ambiguous the situation is, note that even some wounded Iraqi war veterans are insisting that the US […]

Failure of US Public Diplomacy in the Middle East Michael Pan and Jeremy Weinstein argue in “Forfeiting the War of Ideas” that the US government has failed to fund public diplomacy efforts that might help the US win the war of ideas in the Middle East. They are absolutely right. Goddamned Jesse Helms did irreparable […]

2 US Soldiers Killed in Blast; 2 Ramadi Sheikhs Assassinated AP reports that a man wearing an explosives belt showed up outside the compound of brothers Majid and Amer Ali Suleiman in Ramadi and blew himself up. Three Iraqi guards outside the compound were killed. The brothers were accused of cooperating with the Americans. US […]

Sunnis Opposed Early Direct Elections Both az-Zaman and Reuters highlight the opposition of many Sunni Arab leaders to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani’s demand for open, direct elections in Iraq this may. It quoted “Sunni tribal leader Shaikh Abd al-Wahab al-Zawbaai” as saying direct elections are unrealistic: “We see the conditions now as totally unsuitable for […]

Provincial Election in Iraq According to az-Zaman, the 40-person provincial council of the province of Salahuddin has elected a new governor, Falah Hasan Mustafa al-Naqib. This story is of course a minor one, but I am paraphrasing it here because I think it sheds great light on provincial Iraqi affairs about which those of us […]

Bush appointeee Silberman has History of Scandal The Guardian complains today about Bush appointing Laurence Silberman to head up the commission looking into intelligence failures regarding Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. Since this commission has no subpoena powers and won’t report until 2005, it is anyway window dressing. The Guardian story details Silberman’s role, when […]

One US Soldier killed, 5 Wounded on Sunday; Iraqi police Major among Insurgents AP reports that a roadside bomb exploded in a median in a highway south of Baghdad, killing one US soldier on Sunday afternoon. Earlier Sunday, a rocket propelled grenade attack at Mosul wounded three US soldiers, according to eyewitnesses who also saw […]

Chalabi meets with Sistani: “UN can be Convinced” Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite member of the Interim Governing Council, met for 90 minutes with Grand Ayatollah Sistani and emerged to declare that he was sure the United Nations team now in Iraq could be convinced of the feasibility of direct elections. Chalabi had initially opposed […]

Militias and Terrorism; Terrorism and Militias The news from Iraq in the New York Times focuses Monday on terrorism and militias. Edward Wong of the NYT surveys the persistence of Shiite and Kurdish paramilitaries. I was struck by the tone of resignation on the American side; they appear to have given up on disarming these […]