Juan Cole

Iraqis ask for Withdrawal Timetable AP reports on the results of the Cairo national reconciliation conference, attended by the major Iraqi political factions, including Sunni Arabs. Al-Hayat gives the orginal Arabic wording of some articles of the agreement. One provision says, “We demand the withdrawal of foreign forces in accordance with a timetable, and the […]

Sharon’s Critique of the Authoritarian Likud Party Ariel Sharon’s resignation from the Likud Party is a more forceful critique of that party than any I have offered. Likudniks are notoriously unable to deal with being criticized, so my simple and accurate characterization of the party as having colonialist and fascistic tendencies has driven its acolytes […]

Guest Editorial on Murtha: Achcar & Shalom “On John Murtha’s Position” by Gilbert Achcar and Stephen R. Shalom There is much of which to approve in the recent speech of Rep. John P. Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania, on Iraq. The hawkish Murtha had been critical of the Bush administration’s handling of the war for some […]

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Blogroll Political Journalism Talking Points Memo – Joshua Micah Marshall (Progressive politics, elegantly argued.) Air America (Progressive Web Site with Radio Stream) Huffington Post. Helena Cobban – Just World News (Veteran journalist, Middle East) The Global Beat: Resources for the Global Journalist TomDispatch.com (Tom Engelhardt, The Nation Institute) Majority Report Sam Seder and Janeane Garofalo […]

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, […]