Juan Cole

High Turnout Expected as Iraqis go to Polls The guerrillas got off some mortars as voting began Thursday in Iraq, one striking the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad where the government offices are. A mortar was also fired in Mosul at a polling station but appears to have missed. A huge bomb was found and […]

Helman on Rice and the New Truman Doctrine Ambassador Gerald B. Helman writes: ” In an op-ed piece published in the December 11 Washington Post, Secretary of State Rice provides an important statement of the Administration’s global strategic posture. She underscores its importance by comparing the international environment the Administration confronted when it took office […]

Thousands of Shiites Demonstrate against Aljazeera; Four US troops were killed and a Sunni politician (Mizhar Dulaimi of Ramadi) was assassinated on Tuesday in the run-up to the Iraqi elections (scheduled for Dec. 15). Two days ago, another Sunni parliamentary candidate had been killed in Mosul. On Monday, Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a Shiite candidate from […]

Street Battles, Bombings in Baghdad; Less Wealthy Candidates Cannot Campaign Baghdad was wracked with violence on Monday, witnessing a major carbombing at a police station, another carbombing in a southwest suburb, the discovery of four bodies of kidnapping victims, and two running street battles in Amiriyah and Ghazaliyah districts–with at least 43 persons wounded or […]

ABC/Time Poll on Iraq The full tabulation of the new ABC News/Time, et al., poll on Iraq is in pdf format on the web. Although a lot of Iraqis are optimistic about the future, and a lot say things aren’t going so badly for them personally, their view of where the country is at presently […]

Kashmir Crisis Enters Critical Phase The news from Kashmir, where 80,000 survivors of the earthquake now face severe winter weather and problems of food and shelter, is not good. The UN High Commissioner on Refugees is complaining about lack of resources. Let’s make a last push with the US Congress. A Hill staffer writes: “After […]

Anti-Muslim Race Riots in Australia The government of John Howard has belatedly called for religious tolerance in Australia after a race riot broke out there, wherein Australian surfers and rowdies directed violence against Lebanese and others. This sort of riot against the Muslim minority is the dream of Muslim radicals, who can add the footage […]

Sistani Counsels Shiites Against Wasted Votes Sunni Arabs Plead for Talks Knight Ridder reports on dirty campaign tricks and over-heated rhetoric in the Iraq political campaign. Robert Collier of the San Francisco Chronicle has an extremely important piece based on interviews with Sunni Arab politicians in Iraq. Their general consensus is that if the US […]

4 US Troops Killed Election Violence in Najaf, Mosul Guerrillas killed four GIs in separate incidents, some with small arms fire. A suicide bomber targeted an Iraqi army unit in Balad and killed one soldier and wounded 11 others. Aljazeera on early Sunday morning was reporting 6 US troops dead, but the wire services were […]