Archives for 2005

Allawi Gambit Gilbert Achcar writes in an email: Today’s (3/3) Al-Hayat quotes Allawi’s conditions for any agreement on the government: “to keep the security apparatuses in their present formula; no interference from the [Shia parties’] militias in their functioning; to prevent regional and neighboring states [not the US, of course!] from interfering in Iraq’s domestic […]

Regime Change, Mafia Style: Syria 1957 Settling scores department: Some bloggers or commentators expressed skepticism about my allegation of US shaping of the Middle East in the 1950s and after. Gilbert Achcar reminded me of this report of the discovery of documents proving a US and British assassination plot against Syrian leaders in 1957. Kermit […]

US Military Deaths reach 1500; 19 Iraqis Killed Associated Press says that a US Marine killed by guerrillas in Babil province on Wednesday was number 1500 among US military deaths in Iraq. This number includes over 300 troops that have not died in action, though some proportion of those deaths may actually be war-related; and […]

Still no Government Allawi Slams Sistani Negotiations between the religious Shiite coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance, which has 54 percent of seats in the parliament, have bogged down with the Kurdish Alliance, which has 27 percent, according to the Scotsman. The UIA needs 66% to form a government. In theory, the UIA could call parliament […]

Blogads Survey Readers are encouraged to take a moment to fill out this survey concerning blogads. It seems to me that they are the only business model we can hope for that keeps Web content free. They aren’t crucial to my site, but there are many progressive webmasters who have been freed to work for […]

Guerrillas Kill 6 Iraqi Soldiers, Wound 25 Over a thousand demonstrators rallied in Hilla to protest the bombing on Monday that is now estimated to have killed 106 persons at a medical clinic, including women and children and civilian men. It appears to have targeted potential recruits for the police and national guard standing in […]

Lebanon Realignment and Syria It is often pointed out that presidents get too much praise and blame for the economy, since the domestic economy has its own rhythms. We are now going to see everything that happens in the Middle East attributed to George W. Bush, whether he had much to do with it or […]

Negotiations Continue on Formation of Iraqi Government Al-Hayat: A Fallujah notable, Khalid Fakhri al-Jamili, said Monday that the Americans were engaged in a large-scale set of attacks on cities in Anbar province such as Ramadi, Hit, Hadithah and Aana, which had the prospect of reducing them to Fallujah-like states of destruction. He warned that the […]

Dawa Party Background Aaron Glantz gives an overview of the Dawa Party of Ibrahim Jaafari since 1980. One thing I would quibble with is that the dispute in the late 1980s was not over how close to be to the Iranian regime. It was over whether to keep the party autonomous or meld it in […]