Juan Cole

Straw Man Resolution in Congress: Joking around with the Lives of the Troops Brad Blog gives the text of Democratic congressman and retired Marine Colonel John Murtha’s resolution on Iraq: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of American in Congress assembled, That: Section 1. The deployment […]

Dozens Dead in another Black Friday Shiite Worshippers Massacred Suicide bombers went into two Shiite religious centers [Husayniyyahs] in Khaniqin northeast of Baghdad on Friday at the time of noon Friday prayers in congregation, and detonated their bombs. The death toll as of late Friday was being reported as 82 in the Western wire services. […]

Blowing in the Wind In the background of today’s entries, Bob Dylan’s “blowing in the wind” is playing. How many roads must a man walk downBefore you call him a man? In response to the call for a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by a retired marine colonel, decorated Vietnam War veteran and Democratic […]

The Skin is Peeling off the New Iraq: White Phosphorus and Torture Al-Quds al-Arabi: First, the Pentagon was forced to admit that it had in fact used white phosphorus as a weapon (and not just as a smokescreen) in Fallujah, though it insisted that it was used only against combatants, not civilians. (When you attack […]

Woodward and Insider Trading Bob Woodward, who as a young man exposed the Watergate burglaries has now become wrapped up in a scandal himself. He did not tell his employers at the Washington Post that he had been leaked to in the Plame affair. It turns out that a high White House official told Woodward […]

Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Preparations for Cairo Conference Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari revealed Tuesday that nearly 200 prisoners detained by the Ministry of the Interior had been discovered to have been tortured and half-starved. The State Department spokesman alleged that the US does not practice torture! And said it did not expect others to do […]

Woman Bomber Unrepentant Al-Hayat: Sajidah Mubarak Atrus al-Rishawi, who attempted to detonate a belt bomb at the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman last Wednesday night is still unrepentant. She insists that she is fighting “the infidels and apostates from among the Muslims.” (Mainstream Sunni Muslim authorities frown on viewing other Sunnis as non-Muslims for lack […]

Muslims and the 5 Questions Somebody named Dennis Prager wrote a frankly bigotted op-ed for the LA Times asking “Muslims” 5 questions. The questions are fairly easy to answer in themselves, but the stupidity of the whole framework is what is objectionable. Why is it that our media personalities cannot think their way out of […]

The Strange Death of Moustapha Akkad; Zarqawi and “Halloween” The ironies and dangers of globalization are tragically epitomized in the death last week of Hollywood director Moustapha Akkad at the Radisson SAS in Amman at the hands of an Iraqi suicide bomber. Akkad was there with his daughter to attend a wedding. Akkad was born […]