Juan Cole

Is Chalabi Out? Brahimi Plan advances, Baathists Rehabilitated The intrepid Robin Wright and Walter Pincus at the Washington Post argue that the Brahimi plan for Iraq could forestall the coronation of Ahmad Chalabi as Iraq’s America-installed prince. Brahimi favors appointing four technocrats from outside the Interim Governing Council, leaving IGC members to organize themselves for […]

What is to Be Done in Iraq?: Polk Guest Commentary By William R. Polk ‘ While C.I.A. director George J. Tenet struggles in Washington to prove that his agency did not exaggerate the danger Iraq posed to the United States, American forces continue to come under attack on the ground throughout Iraq. Misunderstanding is evident […]

Commentary on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Hearing on Iraq: Nathan Brown Guest Commentary by Nathan J. Brown, George Washington University http://home.gwu.edu/~nbrown This week’s Senate Foreign Relations hearings–in which you participated–made headlines partly because they revealed the extent to which basic questions about American plans in Iraq have not been settled. They also alerted […]

Situation Around Najaf remains Tense Muqtada al-Sadr and his movement remain defiant. In Basra, about 800 Sadrists held a demonstration, led by Shaikh Abdul Sattar al-Bahadili, in which they alleged that the British were responsible for the recent horrific bombings. Many Basrans angry, at the very least, at the UK troops for allowing the bombings […]

Hitchens Questions on Iraq A reader sent me these questions that he said Christopher Hitchens had posed. I then found them at his web site. They are: 1) Do you believe that a confrontation with Saddam Hussein’s regime was inevitable or not? 2) Do you believe that a confrontation with an Uday/Qusay regime would have […]

More on Senate Foreign Relations Committee Testimony: Cole and Dodge Here are oral comments of myself and Toby Dodge last Tuesday at the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Senator Lugar: . . . Dr. Dodge. MR. DODGE: Well, thank you very much for the invitation to present here today. It’s a great sorrow that it’s […]

Perle at the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations It was quite an experience to be on the same panel on Tuesday with Richard Perle and Toby Dodge, before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Perle wasn’t added until the last minute, and it is mysterious why he was there, since ours was supposed to […]

Brahimi Criticizes US Bias Toward Israel Al-Hayat reports that UN special envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi remarked on Wednesday that it was unjust for the US to show such a strong bias in favor of Israeli repression, and that it was making his job in Iraq more difficult. Roula Khalaf also describes in the Financial […]

Jaafari Suggests to Muqtada that he go into Exile az-Zaman reports from Najaf that informed sources are saying that the chief intermediary between the Coalition and Muqtada al-Sadr right now is the leader of the al-Da`wa Party, Ibrahim Jaafari, who is presently in Najaf. The sources said that Jaafari met al-Sadr on Wednesday and suggested […]