Juan Cole

Napoleon’s Egyptgot a notice in the NYT “Paperback Row” by Elsa Dixler. ‘NAPOLEON’S EGYPT: Invading the Middle East, by Juan Cole. (Palgrave Macmillan, $16.95.) Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt — the first modern incursion by the West into the Middle East — is often remembered as the beginning of Egyptology or a template for Napoleon’s later […]

Barnett Rubin has extensive comments on the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul. The toll has risen to 41 dead, 147 wounded. Aljazeera International has video: And, more South Asian bombings: Some group set off 6 bombs in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi, in the Pushtun-dominated areas.

Two Iraq-style suicide bombings hit South Asia in the past 24 hours. On Sunday, a suicide bomber hit a police checkpoint in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, killing 17 and wounding 54. Most of the dead were police. Some speculated that the bombing was meant as a grim commemoration of the storming of the Red […]

Zogby reports: July 06, 2008 Zogby Poll: Building Mo-bama! Democrat Leads McCain in Electoral College Tally, 273-158 The Democrat also leads 44% to 38% in the nationwide horserace test as Libertarian Bob Barr wins 6% UTICA, New York – As the race for President passes the Independence Day holiday and heads toward the dog days […]

Shorter Swopa: The Iraqi government ban on using photographs of non-candidates (including revered ayatollahs) in campaign literature is not a move to separate religion and state but is rather compliance with direction from Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who had already complained about the photos. Surprise! Friends of George do well with oil contracts in Iraq. […]

From Reddit.com on Saturday: Afghan governor says US air strikes killed 22 civilians. If only we could nuke Iran. Ron Paul says he has heard colleagues in Congress openly talk about using tactical nuclear weapons against Iran. The World Bank estimates that biofuels have caused food prices to rise 75 percent, much more than earlier […]

Patrick Cockburn reports from Baghdad that Mahmud Osman, a Kurdish MP, maintains that an attack on Iran by Israel or the US would plunge Iraq back into war. Cockburn points to two terrorist groups based in Iraq that the US Pentagon appears to be deploying against Iran. They are the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK or […]