Juan Cole

Attacks in Baqubah, Mansur Train, Pipeline bombed Reuters reports on deaths in the guerrilla war on Thursday: In Baqubah and Khan Bani Saad northeast of Baghdad, guerrillas fought battles with Iraqi soldiers, killing six of them. In the tony Mansur district of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber struck at an Iraqi army checkpoint. He killed […]

Turks threaten to Invade Iraq Just a reminder how much of a tinderbox Iraq is, and how easily neighboring countries could be drawn into a war there: The Kurdish Marxist party, the Kurdish Worker’s Party (Kurdish acronym PKK) has been committing violence in eastern Turkey near the Iraqi border. The Kurdish guerrillas are suspected of […]

War on Terror Over The Bush administration is giving up the phrase “global war on terror.” I take it this is because they have finally realized that if they are fighting a war on terror, the enemy is four guys in a gymn in Leeds. It isn’t going to take very long for people to […]

The Consequences of Nuking Iran Readers have asked me about this discussion at Daily Kos. It notes that former CIA analyst Philip Giraldi wrote in the American Conservative: The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be […]

On How US Troops Aren’t Coming Home Any Time Soon al-Hayat reports that 16 Iraqis were killed in guerrilla violence in Baghdad and its environs on Wednesday, and 20 bodies were discovered in Mosul. (Typically such corpses belong to Iraqi police). The US military imposed a curfew on Samarra, after an attack on one of […]

Draft Constitution Enshrines Islamic Law At Least 27 Dead in Guerrilla Violence Humam al-Hamoudi, the head of the constitution drafting committee in the Iraqi parliament, has called a leadership summit for Thursday and Friday to discuss the current draft. I interpret this move as a sign that the committee itself is deadlocked. The hope appears […]

Sunni Arabs Rejoin Constitution Committee The Sunni Arab members of the constitution drafting committee ended their boycott on Monday, and say they will attend Tuesday’s meeting. Parliament agreed to provide them bodyguards and conduct an investigation into the killing of two of their number last week. Reuters reports deaths in the ongoing guerrilla war: A […]

Former British PM John Major Ties Iraq to Bomb Attacks Former British PM John Major said Monday to the BBC, ‘ “I think what has happened is not that the Iraq war and other policies created that threat, I think it was there and growing, though it was not in full bloom. “I think it […]

Cole in Bay Area, Mid-October I’m going to be giving a talk in northern California in mid-October. I often get requests to let organizations know when I’m in the area so they can have me speak. So, I’m letting you know.