Juan Cole

More on US Refusal to hold Local Elections Many thanks to readers for the great interest they showed in so serious a subject as the consequences of the refusal of the Coalition Provisional Authority to allow local elections in Iraq last summer. The subject was broached by Roger Myerson of the University of Chicago. I […]

Wave of Assassinations Continues Sunday Car Bomb at Military Academy kills 12, wounds 13 Guerrillas used a car bomb Sunday to target an Iraqi military academy in southeast Baghdad. There are many US military personnel at the college. It was intercepted by Iraqi police cars, and then detonated, killing 12 Iraqis and wounding 13. Al-Hayat […]

California and Florida: Polls and Demographics work against Bush Has W. morphed from Neo to Smith? Ron Fournier of the Associated Press has a fascinating article on the changes in Florida’s political geography since the last election. He points out that over 700,000 voters have moved into Florida, which now has over 9 million voters, […]

Riot at Imam Ali Shrine; Clashes in Sadr City al-Hayat and ash-Sharq al-Awsat: Sadr City: A Sadrist spokesman said late Friday that one Mahdi Army militiaman was killed and several others were wounded in clashes with American forces in Sadr City, Baghdad. Reuters television footage showed Muqtada’s fighters firing machine guns and tossing hand grenades […]

Samarra’i calls for Military Resistance Sunni preacher Shaikh Ahmad al-Samarra’i accused Prime Minister Iyad Allawi of being an American agent in his sermon on Friday. He addressed Allawi from the pulpit, saying, “Have all noble persons disappeared, that you have come and sought assistance from foreigners?” AFP adds: ‘ And in one of Baghdad’s largest […]

Iraqis working for the US Live in Fear AFP continues its excellent tradition of covering Iraq from the ground up(in this case the eastern city of Baqubah) with a fine piece about the fear in which Iraqis live who work for the Americans. Many translators have been killed, and others are getting death threats. Many […]

Did Prohibiting Local Elections Derail Iraq? Professor Roger Myerson of the University of Chicago earlier authored a prescient paper, ,”How to Build Democracy in Iraq.” He now writes: “In recent weeks, political reporters have done much to clarify the development of prisoner-interrogation policies in Iraq. I hope that similar efforts might clarify the decision-making process […]

Mahdi Army Takes Police Station in Najaf Fighting continued in Najaf on Thursday, though US troops stayed out of it and let the Najaf police chief handle the situation. The Mahdi Army appears to have done severe damage to the police station. There was attendant fighting in Sadr City between the US and radical Shiites […]

Chirac Politely takes on Bush AFP reports that on a number of occasions French president Jacques Chirac exhibited independence from the Bush agenda. He wore a coat and tie at Sea Island, Georgia, despite President Bush’s request for informality. He refused to see NATO troops sent to Iraq. On NATO, according to AP he said […]