Juan Cole

IRI Suppresses Key Data Muqtada as Popular as Allawi In my posting on Sunday, I complained that the International Republican Institute rather unrealistically put a happy face on the results of its most recent poll in Iraq. It is worse. First, the poll is being greeted as a huge joke in Iraq, both because it […]

Defending Massad Those who care anything for freedom of speech and academic integrity should please rise to the defense of Professor Joseph Massad at Columbia University. A concerted campaign has been gotten up against him by the American Likud, aimed at getting him fired. We don’t fire professors in the United States for their views […]

6 US Troops Wounded, More than 28 Iraqis Dead, Over 50 Wounded On Saturday, Alistair Lyon reported from Baghdad along with David Randall in London that guerrillas wounded 6 US troops; killed at least 24 Iraqi security men and wounded dozens of Iraqi police and national guardsmen; and killed 4 civilians. Early on Saturday a […]

Is the IRI Spinning the Poll I find the cover page at the International Republican Institute web site concerning its recent polling in Iraq to be extremely disturbing. IRI is of course closely linked to the US Republican party and does the polling with US tax dollars (i.e. you and I are paying for it). […]

Eminem on Bush and Iraq: Comments by Hale and White Philosopher Benjamin Hale responds to my posting about Eminem on Friday: ‘ There are more interesting implications of Eminem’s condemnation of the Iraq War. Eminem, if you remember, was at the center of a controversy a few years ago about some extremely homophobic imagery and […]

Eminem on Bush I don’t know what Marshall Mathers’s politics are. But I do know that they could be of consequence for the youth vote, and his loud pleas for everyone to vote may also have an impact at the margins (this election is about the margins). That he is issuing a song, Mosh, which […]

7 Iraqis Killed, 9 more Die of Previous Injuries Al-Hayat: Guerrillas fired mortar shells at caretaker Prime Minister Iyad Allawi as he was leaving the northern city of Mosul on Thursday. Journalists accompanying him heard five explosions as his entourage was on the verge of departing the city. From the helicopters used by Allawi and […]

In Memory of Maude Meanwhile, The Scotsman reports on the British government’s agreement to deploy 850 British troops in the area southwest of Baghdad. Here’s my lay guess as to what this is about: Bush wants to flatten Fallujah as soon as the US elections are over. Flattening Fallujah requires moving another battalion or so […]

Iraq Losing Billions in Petroleum Revenues AFP reports that interim Iraqi Minister of Petroleum Thamer Ghadban says that sabotage and lack of refining capacity has cost Iraq $7 billion since March, 2003. Iraq’s production has fallen to such low levels that it actually has to import oil, paying $200 million per month for it, or […]