Juan Cole

Will Osamah Bin Laden Benefit from Arafat’s Death? My opinion piece on the implications of Arafat’s passing for al-Qaeda has appeared at Newsday. Excerpt: “Arafat’s secular nationalism was supple enough to compromise with Israel and to imagine a two-state solution, even if the road of negotiations remained rocky. The continued Israeli colonization of the occupied […]

Reagan, First Bush Administrations Cynically winked at Saddam’s use of Chemical Weapons: Salon.com Barry Lando, writing in Salon.com, surveys the ways in which Reagan and Bush senior winked at Saddam’s use of chemical weapons. Excerpt: Lando: “More than a decade earlier, the United States performed the same sleight of hand — now we condemn civilian […]

Did Fallujah Sink the Elections? Among the justifications given by the US for its campaign against guerrillas in Fallujah was that it would prepare the way for elections in January. It was said that elections could not be held as long as major cities were not even in government control. It seems likely, however, that […]

27 Killed in Iraq Violence, 3 US Soldiers Wounded Wire services report that some 27 persons were known to be killed in violent incidents in Iraq on Wednesday, though this number seems likely to be a fraction of the true total. The Bahrain Daily News says, “A suicide attacker drove his bomb-laden car into a […]

More on Marine Mosque Killing Iraqis continued to be furious Wednesday over the shooting by a US marine of a wounded Iraqi fighter in a mosque in Fallujah. Indeed, the Arab press in general expressed horror and outrage. Unlike US news outlets, al-Jazeera and other Arab satellite news stations actually showed the prisoner being shot, […]

Election Boycott Announced Forty-seven Iraqi political parties, including many with a religious base, have announced that they will boycott the planned January elections. They met at the Umm al-Qura mosque in Baghdad under the auspices of the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars and its allies among Sunni fundamentalists, but they were joined by 8 Shiite […]

Iraqi Press Reaction to Fallujah Mosque Killing Al-Hayat: (trans. J. Cole): “The killing of a wounded Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque by an American Marine and the killing of the Iraqi-British hostage Margaret Hassan epitomize the battle taking place in Iraq. As the American military began its investigation of the marine’s motives, an Islamic group […]

Sistani urges Iraqis to put aside Narrow Interests Al-Hayat, Ja`far al-Ahmar: The battle of Fallujah uncovered some of the fissures, contradictions, and crticisms that had not been admitted by any local, Arab or regional party. The reaction to the American assault on Fallujah has been muted among Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and other major Shiite […]

Powell’s Resignation Colin Powell’s resignation as secretary of state may be a more important development than meets the eye. It could be argued that he has been so marginalized and ineffective that he might as well resign, and that it makes no difference whether he is in office or not. Powell wanted to devote great […]