Juan Cole

Peace in Iraq Still Elusive after Constitutional Referendum Al-Hayat reports that 643,000 votes were cast in Ninevah Province (capital: Mosul). At the time it filed, 419,000 had been preliminarily counted, and the vote was running 75 percent in favor. Ninevah Province was the most likely place that Sunni Arabs opposing the constitution might be able […]

Achchar Guest Editorial: On the Sunni Vote in the October 15 Constitutional Referendum Gilbert Achcar writes: ‘ The major difference between the October 15 vote and the January 30 election as is now confirmed has been the—uneven but nevertheless important—Sunni participation. It is interesting to have a close look at this development. A summary of […]

LeVine Guest Editorial: Iraq’s Oslo Moment Mark LeVine writes: ‘ Iraq’s Oslo Moment With the approval of the revised Constitution on Saturday by a strong majority of its citizens, Iraq would seem to be poised to enter a new and peaceful phase of the post-Saddam era. But viewed from the perspective of the Middle East’s […]

Arato Guest Editorial: The Constitution and a Pot of Porridge Andrew Arato of the New School writes: ‘ We can now assume that in Saturday’s referendum the 2/3 negative votes will not be attained in a third, Sunni majority province, and that the Constitutional Proposal submitted to the Iraqi people has passed. It is now […]

The Threads of Scandal: Iraq, Niger, Plamegate and Franklin Norman Dombey asks acute questions about the various scandals in Washington concerning the false documents alleging Iraqi purchase of Niger uranium. These forgeries tie together the fraudulent basis for the Iraq War, the scandal that caught up Judith Miller of the New York Times about the […]

Constitution Likely to Pass 6 US Marines Killed Six US GI’s were killed by roadside bombs Saturday and Sunday, according to wire services, five of them in Ramadi. The early returns from the Iraqi referendum on the new constitution suggest that it will pass, avoiding a Sunni Arab 3-province veto. Anbar and Salahuddin appear to […]

Sunni Arabs Reject Constitution Anbar province to the west of Baghdad has about 1.2 million residents, almost all of them Sunni Arabs. It had the lightest turnout in the referendum Saturday on the new constitution, but what turnout there was appears to have been solidly negative. Of 209 polling stations in the province, the home […]

Zawahiri Letter The other thing that struck me as odd about the Zawahiri letter was that at the end he raises the question of whether a non Iraqi should be leading the insurgency. This is odd for several reasons. Al Qaeda does not think in terms of nationality but of the umma or Muslim community. […]

Referendum on Constitution The Iraqis are voting Saturday in a referendum on the new constitution. It was again endorsed by Shiite preachers and clerics on Friday. Sunni preacher were more divided. Sunni Arabs in the west of Iraq are complaining about a lack of polling stations in their areas. Many wish to vote against the […]