Juan Cole

Informed Comment up for Koufax Award 2003 Koufax Award Finalists Best Expert Blog has been announced, with this column as a finalist. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported the site so warmly!

Humanitarian Grounds for Iraq War? Re: Human Rights Watch Executive Director Ken Roth, “War in Iraq: Not a Humanitarian Intervention“, 26 January 2004, Keynote essay to Human Rights Watch, “World Report 2004.” My reply, from a discussion list: I deeply disagree with the way the Bush administration pursued the war against Iraq. The hyping of […]

Sachedina Interview by Cobban: Sistani is Trying to Bring in the UN Helena Cobban’s interview with Shiite thinker Abdulaziz Sachedina of the University of Virginia is a must-read contribution. Sachedina has recently been to Iran and moved among the Shiites. Interestingly, he seems to think that there is more support for Muqtada al-Sadr than for […]

Bush: Saddam posed grave threat to US Bush maintains that despite the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Saddam Hussein posed “a grave and gathering threat to America and the world.” This allegation simply is not true, however much a monster Saddam may be. Let’s look at the issue Harpers style: US […]

Breaking News: Kerry Wins New Hampshire Caught Kerry’s victory speech on CNN. With 73% of precincts reporting, he still has 38% of the vote, a 12-point lead over Dean. The race for third place is still tight, with Clark at 13% to Edwards’s 12%. [As you know, that is about where it ended, save that […]

Breaking News: Same as Headline Below Still watching CNN. With 30% of precincts reporting, Kerry has a very impressive lead over Dean still. Kerry is getting in the high 30s, Dean only in the 20s. Blitzer began by saying CNN exit polls were showing a tight race, but unless it is the upper middle class […]

Breaking News: Kerry Leads, Dean close second, Edwards and Clark tied for Third I’m watching CNN. With just 13% of precincts reporting, Kerry has the lead over Dean in New Hampshire. The exit polls seem to show that the race is much closer than Kerry supporters had hoped. Edwards and Clark both have 13% of […]

Annan Will Send UN Election Team to Iraq Kofi Annan will send an election commission to Iraq, the Washington Post reports. This United Nations commission was the idea of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, and initially the Coalition Provisional Authority headed by Paul Bremer was said to be “deeply offended” by the Iraqi attempt to involve […]

Bombs Rock Baghdad on Monday Powerful explosions rocked downtown Baghdad at 10:35 pm local time on Monday, as a rocket also landed in a parking lot near the American headquarters. It is where Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul Bremer and his aides park, but no casualties were reported. Sirens went off and US officials at […]