Juan Cole

Foreign Occupation has Produced Radical Muslim Terrorism Fareed Zakariya argues that Bush got one thing right. Zakariya writes: ” Bush never accepted the view that Islamic terrorism had its roots in religion or culture or the Arab-Israeli conflict. Instead he veered toward the analysis that the region was breeding terror because it had developed deep […]

12 Killed, 26 Wounded at Baquba Roundup: Looting, Kidnapping, and Shortage of Recruits The Iraqi parliament will meet March 16, whether or not it can form a government at that time, it was announced on Sunday. The hang-up so far has been that the Kurds have insisted on up-front acquiescence in their demands by the […]

US Intervention in 1957 Lebanese Elections A reader writes by email concerning the question of whether the United States engineered the parliamentary elections of 1957 in Lebanon in an attempt to give President Camille Chamoun a second (unconstitutional) term: In regards to the US role in these elections, the remarks of former Ambassador Richard Parker […]

Asad Pledges 2-Stage Withdrawal President Bashar al-Asad of Syria gave a major policy speech [Arabic link] to the Syrian parliament on Saturday on Lebanon. He pledged a withdrawal of Syrian troops to the Biqaa Valley (a largely Sunni Arab area near the Syrian border), after which the troops would then be stationed along the Syria-Lebanon […]

Kurdish-Shiite Negotiations Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani put pressure Saturday on the United Iraqi Alliance to maintain its unity and to speed up the formation of a new government. Intrepid PBS reporter Elizabeth Farnsworth of the Lehrer Hour did a piece from Qom this week about the influence of Grand Ayatollah Sistani in Iran, via his […]

Samarra Turmoil AFP reports that Iraqi police in Samarra announced a daytime curfew aimed at preventing the holding of mass demonstrations called for by the Association of Muslim Scholars. This curfew is apparently authorized by the State of Emergency extended through the end of March by interim PM Iyad Allawi. There has been a lot […]

Constitutional Issues Professor Nathan Brown has written an overview of constitutional issues (link is pdf). Andrew Arato writes by email: This is the more or less complete picture for what 2/3 votes are needed for, according to the Transitional Administrative Law, in the National Assembly and for what 50% + 1 majorities are enough. [Many […]

Public Support for Iraq War CollapsingMajority of Americans want to Bring Some Troops Home Zogby international found that in late February the percentage of Americans who felt that the Iraq War was worth the cost plummeted by 20 percent. Is this because of the further $83 billion Bush requested for Iraq? If so, the support […]

US Wounds Italian Hostage, Kills Intelligence Man Guerrillas Kill 4 Marines The US military on Friday fired on the car carrying a just-released Italian journalist who had been taken hostage. AP says that the troops wounded journalist Giuliana Sgrena and killed “the Italian intelligence officer who helped negotiate her release . . .” Italian Prime […]