Juan Cole

Iraqi Army Not Ready for at Least Two Years Zarqawi’s group rejects Talabani Parlay Offer Violence in Iraq on Sunday left 2 American and one British soldier dead, along with some 12 Iraqis, bringing the weekend death toll to around 120. An Iraqi poll suggests that a great many Iraqis want Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari […]

Zarqawi RIP? It just does not matter if Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead. US troops searched a house in Mosul where guerrillas took their own lives rather than be captured for signs that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi might be among the dead. A later US press release said that it doubted that al-Zarqawi had been killed. […]

More than 50 Dead in Saturday Bombings Guerrillas killed 5 GIs and wounded 5 others in Baiji on Saturday with roadside bombs. They also blew up a market in southern Baghdad near the Diyalah Bridge, killing 13 and wounding 20. At a funeral in a town northeast of Baghdad for a man killed by suicide […]

Conversation between a Sunni Muslim and a SCIRI Leader Gilbert Achcar kindly writes: “AN EXCHANGE BETWEEN SUNNI MUSLIMS AND A SCIRI LEADER On the occasion of the Iraqi conference to be held in Cairo under the auspices of the League of Arab states, IslamOnline—a website related to the pan-Islamic (Sunni) Muslim Brotherhood—invited Dr. Ali al-Adad, […]

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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 […]