Juan Cole

Conditions in Iraq Zaid al-Ali, an Iraqi attorney who has practiced in New York and Paris, returned to his native land recently and wrote about what he saw. Excerpts: ” [HOSPITALS]: As we walked through the hospital, I spoke with some of the staff and soon realised that all the things that I had read […]

At Least 19 Killed in Violence, over 2 Dozen Wounded Reuters reports that guerrillas detonated a car bomb at Anah near the Syrian border, targeting recruits to the national guard. They killed some 16 persons and wounded 24. The geographical breadth of the guerrillas was demonstrated when they also planted a road bomb in the […]

WMD Myth Meant to Deter Iran First, the CIA comes out and says it can’t find any convincing evidence that Saddam Hussein harbored Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi’s presence at certain points in Iraq has long been argued as a proof of his links to terrorism and al-Qaeda (even though Zarqawi’s Monotheism and Jihad is a […]

Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bremer: Deserting a Sinking Ship How to understand the sudden outbreak of candor among Bush administration officials (or former officials) about Iraq in the past couple of days? In the vice presidential debate on Tuesday evening, Dick Cheney said, “I have not suggested there’s a connection between iraq and 9/11.” Well, maybe […]

Kerry on Iraq: Guest Editorial by Joseph White Professor Joseph White, Director of the Center for Policy Studies at Case Western Reserve University, has kindly agreed to share the following guest editorial here. Iraq Then and Now or: Why invading Iraq was the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time, but, once […]

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 […]