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Juan Cole

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Iran, Victory Culture: Wednesday Reading

Iran, Victory Culture: Wednesday Reading

Juan Cole

Tom Engelhardt’s essay, “The Empire of Stupidity,” discusses Iraq, Vietnam and ‘victory culture.’ Engelhardt is author of the recently reissued The End of Victory Culture“, with a new preface and conclusion. It is in some ways an answer to Frederick Jackson Turner’s conundrum– if the Frontier had been so central to American identity, what would […]

Iraq
On How al-Anbar isn’t that Safe and on How its "Calm" is Artificially Produced

On How al-Anbar isn’t that Safe and on How its "Calm" is Artificially Produced

Juan Cole

Bush made a surprise visit to Al-Anbar Province on Monday, as part of his propaganda drive to get Americans to think we should stay in Iraq because “progress” is being made. The debate over al-Anbar province is driven by the Bushies’ desire to find any ‘good news’ to grasp at. Indeed, from 2003 forward, their […]

Uncategorized
Haleh is Free

Haleh is Free

Juan Cole

As Barnett Rubin notes at the Global Affairs blog, Haleh Esfandiari has been allowed to leave Iran and has met her husband, Shaul Bakhash, in Vienna. I am so happy that my friend is free, though I regret the continued imprisonment of three other Iranian-American intellectuals (not to mention many, many prisoners of conscience.) And, […]

Iraq
Maliki: Don’t Use Iraq as a Base to settle Scores US Pressures Bagdad to stop visit of Iranian President

Maliki: Don’t Use Iraq as a Base to settle Scores US Pressures Bagdad to stop visit of Iranian President

Juan Cole

Sawt al-Iraq reports in Arabic that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has pledged not to allow Iraq to become a base for regional or international powers to settle scores. (This announcement seems to me to be an attempt to forewarn the Bush administration that it may not use Iraq as a base for an attack on […]

Uncategorized
Bush and Ahmadinejad: Will they or Won’t They?

Bush and Ahmadinejad: Will they or Won’t They?

Juan Cole

More from Barnett Rubin on signs of a potential Bush administration attack on Iran at the Global Affairs blog. He quotes Alex Debat from the Times of London: “the Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive air strikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days.”

Iraq
Maliki Blames Wahhabis for Karbala Sistani Aide Assassinated

Maliki Blames Wahhabis for Karbala Sistani Aide Assassinated

Juan Cole

The Shiite world has been roiled for weeks by statements of Saudi, Wahhabi clergy in Mecca that Shiite shrines are works of idolatry and should be pulled down. Prime Minsiter Nuri al-Maliki used these anxieties politically to explain the violence at Karbala on Tuesday. Problem: the violence in Karbala was between two factions of Shiites […]

Iraq
Maliki breaks with, Jails Mahdi Army 300 Arrested in Karbala

Maliki breaks with, Jails Mahdi Army 300 Arrested in Karbala

Juan Cole

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered the arrest of 300 persons in Karbala connected to the Mahdi Army on Friday, blaming it for the outbreak of violence in the holy Shiite city on Tuesday. Apparently many of the arrests were arbitrary in the sense that being in the Mahdi Army was the basis for the arrest […]

Uncategorized
Rubin on Hostage Release, Drug Policy in Afghanistan

Rubin on Hostage Release, Drug Policy in Afghanistan

Juan Cole

Here’s some light reading for your Labor Day weekend. Afghanistan is pretty clearly becoming a problem for the US diplomatically and militarily of a major sort that would be front page news if it weren’t for the even more deadly horror show in Iraq. Barnett Rubin weighs in on the release of the Korean hostages […]

Uncategorized
Arguments over Night of the Living Dead in Iraq

Arguments over Night of the Living Dead in Iraq

Juan Cole

A Government Accounting Office report has found that the Iraqi government has not met 13 of 18 benchmarks set by the US Congress. The report was leaked before it could be doctored by the Bush administration, which promptly denounced it and pledged to . . . doctor it. Another thing that could be said is […]

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