Juan Cole

Sistani’s Threat: January Elections are a Must Al-Zaman/DPA: The office of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has issued a demand that free and clean elections be held in every area of Iraq in January. He said that all necessary preparations must be taken to allow them to proceed in security. He warned that the supreme religious […]

41 Dead, over 100 Wounded 2 US soldiers Killed Sunday Al-Jazeerah is reporting heavy fighting in the Shiite slums of East Baghdad between US forces and the Mahdi Army of young Shiite clergy Muqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday morning. This follows on US military operations in the ghetto Monday, into Monday evening, as AC-130 howitzers struck […]

Corruption in the Interim Government “The Planet’s Supreme Kleptocracy” An informed reader writes: ‘ One aspect of the Iraqi reconstruction which hasn’t received sufficient attention is the effect of placing so many exiles and their families and friends in positions of authority through the CPA’s wholesale substitution of these “friendly” Iraqis in place of Baathist […]

The Iraqi Political Campaign has Opened Scheherazade Faramarzi of AP has an excellent piece on the jockeying of Iraqi political parties with regard to the forthcoming elections. She crucially points out that the party ticket system that has been adopted rewards parties with a percentage of seats in accordance with the percentage of votes they […]

Bombings and other News Associated Press reports the latest developments in Iraq. Highlights include the killing of 5 Iraqis in the Shiite ghetto of East Baghdad by US tank fire. Meanwhile, Muqtada al-Sadr is reportedly negotiating with the US for an end to military operations in Sadr City, a part of Baghdad named after his […]

Larkin against Horowitz’s Neo-McCarthyism Graham Larkin of Stanford has penned an important article arguing against David Horowitz’s sinister proto-Stalinist social engineering project of “balancing” universities ideologically. See also my “Are Professors Too Liberal?”. Larkin’s essay is especially good in pointing out that there are no obvious evaluation mechanisms for ideological balance. If we go by […]

What does “Global” Mean? Detractors of John Kerry are making much of this passage in his Thursday debate with George W. Bush: KERRY: The president always has the right, and always has had the right, for preemptive strike. That was a great doctrine throughout the Cold War. And it was always one of the things […]

Of Fallujah and Kirkuk The US forces declared they had taken Samarra back away from the guerrilla resistance, though they admitted there there were still “pockets” of guerrillas. Although the US forces should be able to defeat the guerrillas in Samarra fairly handily, it is not clear that they can learn the language of diplomacy […]

Samarra Campaign Sistani Aide Insists on Elections Some 3000 US soldiers and 1000 Iraqi national guardsmen advanced into downtown Samarra on Friday, engaging in heavy fighting with the guerrilla resistance in that city. Thousands of residents fled north, and the city was shaken with constant explosions. Electricity and water were cut off. Although the US […]