Juan Cole

Sullivan on Cole Andrew Sullivan quoted some of my weblog on why things went wrong in Iraq, admitting I had some good points even if I was being too negative for his taste. Then he cited the following from my blog: “So it wasn’t a catastrophic success that caused the problem. It was that Iraq […]

The CEO Test for Bush Bush gave a long speech Thursday night, which sounded like a laundry list of promises more than anything else. He pointed to few genuine accomplishments during the past four years, and seemed stuck in fall, 2001. If you think about George W. Bush as CEO of America, Inc., it becomes […]

Qaradawi Calls for Attacks on Americans in Iraq Shaikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an old time Muslim Brotherhood cleric resident in Qatar, has called for Muslims to “fight” Americans in Iraq, whether troops or civilians, because they are occupiers. Al-Jazeerah.net says, ‘ “All of them (US military personnel and civilians) are invaders who came from their country […]

7 Dead in Latifiyah Iraqi National Guards headed south to Latifiyah to combat militants there in the wake of the attempted assassination near there of Ahmad Chalabi. They killed 7 and suffered nine wounded themselves, they say. Chalabi’s militia went down to try to recover the bodies of his body guards, four of whom are […]

Ivins: US Losses up from Last Year Molly Ivins’s column today is all the refutation necessary to Dick Cheney’s strangely diffident speech Wednesday night. She writes: ‘ RECORD. We have already lost more American soldiers (488) in Iraq in 239 days of this year than we did in 287 days last year (482), when there […]

Chatham House: Iraq from Bad to Worse Chatham House, formerly the Royal Institute for International Affairs, has issued a highly pessimistic report (in pdf format) on Iraq. At best, it argues, the US and the UK will just muddle through in Iraq, but will fail to attain goals like installing a democracy, and stability will […]

Chalabi Survives Assassination Attempt Sadr Aide Assassinated Ahmad Chalabi’s convoy came under fire as he was returning to Baghdad from Najaf. Two of his bodyguards were injured, but he escaped harm. He was in Najaf consulting with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani before returning to the first meeting of the National Council, in the capital. Chalabi […]

Spy Scandal’s Roots are Deep Jim Lobe argues that the FBI investigation that caught up Pentagon Iran expert Lawrence Franklin is much wider than initially thought, and focuses on the unauthorized transfer to Israel of highly sophisticated military software and designs. Since many Israeli arms merchants connected to the government in Tel Aviv sell to […]

Charles Smith on Bush and Sharon Guest Editorial By Charles Smith: “Bait and Switch: Ariel Sharon, the Bush Administration, and the West Bank” Much attention has focused recently on Ariel Sharon’s travails in Israel where a majority of his Likud Party oppose his intent to withdraw all Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip as part […]