Juan Cole

US Air Strikes Kill 20 in Fallujah US air strikes on Fallujah on Monday killed some 20 persons. The US military maintained that it was targeting safe houses of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his group, Monotheism and Holy War. (Some are translating tawhid as “unity,” but in Islam what is meant by tawhid is to […]

Has the US been Fighting Turkmen? Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul revealed that he threatened the US over its treatment of Turkmen in Iraq when he talked to Secretary of State Colin Powell. The Scotsman writes, ‘ Gul said he spoke to US Secretary of State Colin Powell ”and told him that what is being […]

Bloody Sunday: 110 Dead in Iraq, 200 Wounded The Iraqi Guerrilla War erupted into a spectacular set of conflagrations on Sunday and over the weekend, according to Reuters’ Ibon Villalabeitia, leaving at least 110 dead and, according to AP, some 200 wounded. Baghdad At least 7 car bombs shook the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, and […]

US Casualties in Iraq: Gustafson Erik Gustafson writes: “Setting the record straight, sort of… Last week Clive Astle wrote, “Molly (Ivins) appears to have omitted counting the number killed but unidentified pending notification of kin. Total US dead is reported at 1012 as at end of August…” Clive is double counting some U.S. military deaths. […]

The Fate of Iraq’s Christians: Eden Naby Guest Editorial for Informed Comment by Eden Naby Just after celebration of the Festival of the Cross (Aida d-Sliwa) on Friday, 10 September, the village of Baghdeda, located southeast of Mosul, on the Nineveh Plains, in the Ninawa Governorate, came under mortar attack. Thus far a complete tally […]

Violence in Baqubah, Basra, Tal Afar, etc. The Washington Post finally gives us a description of the guerrillas fighting in the Shiite Turkmen city of Tal Afar (pop. 250,000). They are said by the US military to be “a collection of Sunni Muslim extremists, Baath Party holdovers and foreign fighters, possibly Saudis.” I don’t believe […]

Iraq, Vietnam and the Philippines: Guest Editorial Harold Cole of the UCLA Economics Department (no relation) has kindly permitted me to share a message of his here as a guest editorial. Eerie parallelism The anniversary of September 11 seems to be generating a bit of a reflection on where we are and how are we […]

September 11 and Its Aftermath In order to evaluate the aftermath of September 11, we first must understand that event. What did al-Qaeda intend to achieve? Only if we understand that can we gauge their success or failure. From the point of view of al-Qaeda, the Muslim world can and should be united into a […]

US Operations Kill 57 at Tal Afar, Fallujah The US military conducted major operations against Tal Afar and Fallujah on Thursday, in the course of which 57 persons were killed and dozens wounded. National Public Radio reports that fighters have infiltrated the largely Turkmen Shiite [actually mostly Sunni, it seems] city of Tal Afar and […]