Juan Cole

Mediation with Muqtada and the Limits of Tolerance The Scotsman reports that the standoff between the American forces and those of Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf continues. Muqtada appears to be seeking a compromise. I thought the following anecdote typical of the dry humor of the ayatollahs, even in parlous times. It concerns Muqtada’s negotiations with […]

Arguing with Bush I saw President Bush’s news conference Tuesday evening. He said many things that disturbed me, not in any partisan sort of way (and I continue to maintain that simple partisanship makes for bad analysis), but on grounds of ethics and clear thinking and democratic values. I got the transcript and began arguing […]

Shadid: “It’s Pretty Bad Here.” It isn’t often that one gets to hear a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist speak in his own voice from the field, but that’s what you get at the Washington Post with the Tony Shadid question and answer session. Shadid is one of the best, and being an Arabist with long experience […]

Cole and Gerecht on Shiites of Iraq (Lehrer Newshour) The text of my appearance on the Lehrer News Hour is available at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june04/alsadr_04-13.html.

Shiite Negotiators Warn US The report about Sistani’s strongly-worded message to the US warning them against attacking Najaf is now available in English. I haven’t seen an Arabic text. Some 2500 US troops surround Najaf, and Muqtada al-Sadr says he is willing to sacrifice himself for Iraq. CNN says that those clerics negotiating with Sadr […]

6 US Troops’ Deaths Announced; 4 Police Killed ash-Sharq al-Awsat/AFP: The US military authorities announced Monday that guerrillas had killed 6 US troops in the past three days in separate incidents, deaths that had not previously been announced. With regard to Iraqi deaths, Iraqi guerrillas concentrated their attacks Monday and the previous day on individuals […]

Shiite Leaders Negotiate with Muqtada The London daily ash-Sharq al-Awsat reports that attempts to mediate between radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr and the US are continuing in Najaf, even as there were further clashes on Monday between armed Shiite groups and Polish and Bulgarian troops in the other holy city, Karbala. The gunbattles came despite […]

Sistani Threatens Shiite Resistance if US Invades Najaf The Iranian newspaper Baztab is reporting that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has sent a strongly-worded message to the Coalition forces, in which he warned them against attacking the Shiite shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala after the end of Arba’in. According to this report, in this letter […]

More ‘What went Wrong?’ Carol Giacomo quotes an array of policy experts on the problem with the current US strategy in Iraq: ‘ What’s really needed is a viable political process and the building of a consensus – internationally, regionally and locally – to work our way out of this mess,” said retired Army General […]