Juan Cole

At Least 35 Killed Lebanon Shiite Leaders Criticize American Meeting Roadside bombs targetting police in Baghdad and Iskandariyah killed five and wounded a dozen on Wednesday. Guerrillas in Baghdad killed 15 Shiite pilgrims in separate attacks, and wounded scores others, as they returnted from the 40th day commemoration of the anniversary of the martyrdom of […]

Daring Jailbreak Suggests Guerrillas’ Power Sistani, Senators press Jaafari on new Government Up to 200 Iraqi guerrillas in the Sunni Arab city of Miqdadiyah north of Baghdad mounted a sophisticated military operation to 32 free prisoners in the local jail, some of them guerrillas. They succeeded. In the fierce firefight, guerrillas killed 18 policemen while […]

39 Killed Sunni Arabs demand War Reparations from US At least 39 Iraqis were killed in guerrilla violence on Monday, the third anniversary of the US invasion. Guerrillas killed 10 policemen in separate bomb attacks, as well as hitting a cafe, killing 3 and wounding 23. There was also an attack on officials of the […]

Top Ten Catastrophes of the Third Year of American Iraq The American war against Iraq began on March 20, 2003, so today is the third anniversary. The Himalyan mistakes of the American administration of the country in its first two years have by now been much analyzed — the punitive steps against even low-level Baath […]

Allawi: This is Civil War 35 Killed in Sectarian Violence Iyad Allawi, the former interim prime minister of Iraq, said Sunday that Iraq is in a civil war. ‘ “It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not […]

Bush’s Greater Middle East

Sunnis Reject US-Iran Talks Propose Oversight of Prime Minister Small protests were held by peace activists throughout the US and the world on Saturday. Some 7,000 came out in Chicago, e.g. In London, AP estimates 15,000. (There have been bigger anti-war protests in London). NYT says 6,000 came out in San Francisco, but few of […]

Sistani on Homosexuality [Andrew Sullivan has linked to this post, but makes three errors in as many sentences. 1) This is not a defense of anything. It is an explanation. Since I condemn Sistani’s stance as “sick,” I don’t understand how it can be viewed as a “defense.” 2) Sistani is not Islam. Sistani is […]

Right Blogosphere Scammed by Bogus Document Dump Maha at Daily Kos has it right. It is falling down funny. The Right blogosphere is going crazy about this document [ pdf] in the Iraqi documents made available by the US government this week. See also Sadly No. The notorious liar, Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard […]