Juan Cole

Islamism versus Secularism in Iraq: A Debate I saw this debate on al-Jazeera (Doha) on Sunday in Arabic at 17:15 GMT, on 22 May 05. It was some of the best television discussion of Iraq I’ve ever seen, and the BBC World Monitoring has translated it now (May 24, 2005). The al-Jazeera anchor was quite […]

Sometimes You are Just Screwed Readers occasionally write me complaining that I do not offer any solutions to the problems in Iraq. Let me just step back from the daily train wreck news from the region to complain back that there aren’t any short-term, easy solutions to the problems in Iraq. The US military cannot […]

14 US Troops Dead in 3 Days Civil War in Telafar The Associated Press reports that a car bomb in Baghdad killed 3 US troops, and a drive-by shooting killed a fourth on Tuesday. The deaths brought the three-day total of US military fatalities to 14. Guerrillas detonated a bomb near a girls’ school in […]

Zarqawi Wounded? The news that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may have been wounded, reported at a jihadi web site, dominated US television news on Tuesday. I’m not sure why. A report on a web site cannot be verified. Al-Zarqawi’s group may be trying to throw the United States off his trail. Or the report could be […]

49 Killed, 130 Wounded in Iraq’s Day of Rage Car bombs and other attacks killed at least 49 Iraqis on Monday and left at least 130 wounded, according to AP. Four American troops have also been killed in the past two days. Al-Zaman/ AFP : In Telafar, a largely Turkmen city in the north, two […]

Sadr Mediates Sunni-Shiite Dispute Al-Sharq al-Awsat/ DPA: Young Shiite nationalist leader Muqtada al-Sadr said Monday that the attempts of his aides to mediate between the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars and the Shiite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq’s Badr paramilitary had achieved advances. Deutsche Press Agentur reported that Sadr told them in Najaf, […]

$100 Million “Mishandled” in Iraq An international audit has found that the Allawi government “mishandled” $100 million in petroleum funds that should have been used for development, and that the US Coalition Provisional Authority gave out uncompetitive contracts and misspent development monies. I don’t know what they mean by “mishandled.” I think they may be […]

8,000 Antiquities Still Missing from Iraq The Independent summarizes a paper given by John Curtis of the British Museum at an art crime conference in London, concerning Iraq’s ancient heritage looted while Americans stood by and watched: “[H]alf of the 40 iconic items from the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad still had not been retrieved. […]

14 Killed Sadr Tries to Mediate between Sunnis, Shiites At least 14 persons were killed in Iraq on Sunday in separate incidents. There was a car bomb in Tikrit, which wounded US and Iraqi soldiers. The director general of the Ministry of Trade, Ali Musa Salman, was shot down in Baghdad. There were firefights at […]