Juan Cole

Cat Stevens Deported I know that it is faintly ridiculous that Cat Stevens a.k.a. Yusuf Islam was deported on Wednesday from the US after the airplane he was on was diverted to Maine, on the grounds that he is a dire security threat to the country. David Letterman in his monologue allowed darkly as how […]

If America were Iraq, What would it be Like? President Bush said Tuesday that the Iraqis are refuting the pessimists and implied that things are improving in that country. What would America look like if it were in Iraq’s current situation? The population of the US is over 11 times that of Iraq, so a […]

The Western Press on Religious Violence in Iraq Howard LaFranchi of the Christian Science Monitor gives further, searching consideration to the mysterious murder of clerics on Sunday and Monday and sees dangers of sectarian violence increasing in Iraq. Paul Wood of the BBC reports on the situation in the British-dominated South. It is not a […]

Bush Taunts Kerry I just heard President Bush taunt John Kerry for suggesting that the US was not safer because Saddam Hussein was deposed, and for saying that the US was in fact less safe because of the chaos in Iraq. Bush attempted to turn this statement around and suggest that Kerry was preferring dictatorship […]

The Case of the Three Dead Clerics Al-Zaman and Al-Jazeerah.net say that two important figures in the Sunni fundamentalist Association of Muslim Scholars [Board of Muslim Clerics] were assassinated on Sunday and Monday. Hazim al-Zaidi was found in front of the Sajjad Mosque in Sadr City, a largely Shiite area. Al-Zaidi had been imam to […]

Bin Laden Doesn’t Care Who Wins The remark of Speaker of the House Denis Hastert that al-Qaeda would like to manipulate the US election with a terrorist bombing and would be happier with Kerry as president is simply wrong. The Democrats are correct that such comments are a form of fear-mongering aimed at stampeding the […]

McCain vs. Iraqi Public The rather bloodthirsty demand launched by Arizona Senator John McCain that the US military conquer Fallujah and other Sunni Arab cities of al-Anbar Province will not in fact enhance the possibility of free elections in January. There are bad characters in those al-Anbar cities, without any doubt. There are persons responsible […]

Letter to a Marine Reserve Officer This is a piece of private correspondence with a thoughtful reserve officer who kindly took the time to remonstrate with me about comments he took to be “anti-military” on my web log. Dear . . . I can’t thank you enough for your detailed and (under the circumstances) gentlemanly […]

Sharon Repudiates the Road Map Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in remarks on Wednesday repudiated the American-sponsored “road map” to a peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Sharon insists on acting unilaterally, intends to occupy the Palestinian population indefinitely, and intends to permanently incorporate much of the West Bank, conquered in 1967, into […]