Juan Cole

Optimistic, Pessimistic Views of Kurdistan A friend of mine in northern Iraq sent me the following recently, which I reprint with permission. It is more upbeat than the news from the Sunni Arab triangle. “I have now seen more of northern Iraq than I ever dreamed possible — from Dohuk and Zahko through Irbil to […]

66% of Europeans think Iraq War was Unjustified Meanwhile, a European poll found that two-thirds of Europeans felt the US war on Iraq was unjustified. Even among the publics of US allies, the UK and Spain, a majority condemned the war. Only in Denmark was a majority in favor. (Denmark has the least percentage of […]

Breaking News: Who was behind the Baghdad Blitz of October 27? As you all know by now, car bombings targeted a Red Cross HQ and three police stations in Baghdad Monday morning, in a coordinated attack spanning 45 minutes. 35-40 persons were killed and over 200 wounded according to wire service reports available 4 pm […]

Was Wolfowitz the Target? Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey denied that the rocket attack on the al-Rasheed Hotel was aimed at assassinating Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, arguing that the attack was plotted for two months or so, whereas Wolfowitz’s trip was only recently announced. It seems to me that Dempsey was trying to suggest […]

Iraqis Prefer Technocrats Al-Zaman reports a poll indicating that most Iraqis prefer technocrats (engineers, physicians, scientists, etc.) as their leaders, and show much less trust in traditional politicians or Muslim clergymen. There seemed to be a widespread feeling that there were no traditional politicians in Iraq that were up to the job (i.e. knew politics […]

3 US Soldiers Killed, 4 wounded Friday Guerrillas near Samarra’ about an hour’s drive north of Baghdad fired mortars at the US base there Friday, killing two US soldiers and wounding four. A guerrilla shot a US soldier guarding a grain silo in the north near Mosul. Also at Mosul, guerrillas fired grenades at a […]

Muqtada al-Sadr Condemns Interim Governing Council: “As bad as Saddam” The young Shiite clerical leader Muqtada al-Sadr lashed out at the US-appointed Interim Governing Council on Friday, according to AP. He said that the new regime is not much different from that run by Saddam. Muqtada was in large part referring to the plans by […]

Lack of Medicines for Chronic Diseases The interim Iraqi health ministry has contacted pharmaceutical companies worldwide, urgently seeking medicines to treat chronic diseases. The ministry lacks many such medicines in its storehouses. (al-Sharq al-Awsat)

Elections in Tikrit In an apparent reversal of Paul Bremer’s opposition to municipal elections, Tikrit elected a city council on Thursday. Apparently in the absence of voter registration roles, authorities granted each known household in the municipality one vote. (This procedure would have resulted in a largely middle aged and elderly male electorate, since the […]