Juan Cole

Shiite protests Roil Iraq Tuesday was an apocalyptic day in Iraq. I am not normally exactly sanguine about the situation there. But the atmospherics are very, very bad, in a way that most Western observers will miss. The day started out with a protest by ten thousand people in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, […]

Bringing the United Nations Back In There will be anti-War protests in the coming month, as the 3-year anniversary of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq approaches. I think it is time to demand a timetable for US withdrawal from Iraq. I suspect a majority of Iraqi parliamentarians want that. The Sunni Arabs demand it. The […]

Thinking about Suing If among my loyal readers there are any attorneys with expertise in libel law, in the US or UK, who might be willing to consult on a possible series of lawsuits for reckless defamation of character resulting in professional harm–done on a contingency basis– I’d much appreciate hearing from you.

The Ambassador Versus the Ayatollah: Khalilzad to Iraq: No Shiite Control of Interior, Defense Sistani Contradicts Him On Monday, the stage was set for an epic struggle between the two forces behind the scenes in Iraqi politics, US Ambassadro in Baghdad Zalmay Khalilzad and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Najaf, the spiritual leader of Iraq’s […]

Guerrilla War Still Going Strong: Guerrillas kill 26, Wound 74 in Seven bombings, Other Attacks Al-Zaman [Ar.]: The Iraqi governent says that during the seven days ending on Sunday, guerrillas launched 111 attacks on Iraqi army and police and on US and Coalition forces. These attacks left over 100 Iraqis dead and over 200 wounded. […]

17 Dead in Guerrilla Violence Fadhilah Defends Constitution Robert worth of the NYT reports that some 17 persons were killed in guerrilla violence in Iraq on Sunday. Guerrillas used an explosive device to kill the police chief of Kirkuk and two aides. The Sunni Arab fighters are resisting a take-over of the city by the […]

What if Cheney had Apologized for Iraq? Satire alert for the humorless. What would it have looked like if Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney had apologized for Iraq the way he apologized for shooting a hunting buddy? This is the original link [Imaginary] Transcript of Vice President Dick Cheney’s interview Wednesday with Brit Hume of […]

Iraqi Press Highlights for Feb. 19 Key bits of information from the Iraqi press, selected from a mass of such articles in the Foreign Broadcast Information Service report for Sunday, Feb. 19. A reader asked me if I was deliberately repositing nuggets of key information down in the text, with an eye to giving an […]

20 Dead in Bombings, Gunfights Including GI Guerrillas set off several bombs in Baghdad on Saturday, targetting policemen. They also bombed Tikrit, Baqubah and Fallujah. Deaths in these bombings and in other gunfights came to at least 20. One American soldier was among those killed. Four bodies of persons killed execution-style showed up in Baghdad […]