Juan Cole

US Committed to a strong, Centralized Iraq: Muashir The Jordanian Foreign Minister, Marwan Muashir, said Sunday that King Abdallah II was told when he was in Washington recently that the US opposes a loose federation in Iraq based on ethnic and religious groupings. He was told that Washington wants a strong central government in the […]

Rebuilding In Iraqi South Impeded by Lack of Cooperation A US military spokesman complained that rebuilding in the Shiite South of Iraq was hampered by a lack of cooperation from the local populace, according to al-Sharq al-Awasat. The US also complained about attacks on Coalition troops in the South, though few of these have caused […]

3 US Soldiers Killed, 13 Wounded Guerrillas fired mortar shells into the grounds of the Abu Ghuraib prison on Saturday night, wounding 13 US soldiers and killing two. The use of mortar fire, and the accuracy with which the attack was carried out, suggests Baath military conducted the operation. Mortars are being used more frequently […]

Indian Troops again a Possibility? The Times of India is reporting that the Indian government, having earlier considered and ruled out a Washington request to send troops to Iraq, is now again toying with the idea. The ToI thinks India sees this move as a way to get Washington to pressure Pakistan to better police […]

Clark’s Statements on the Iraq War Consistent I really object to the spin the US press put on the statements of Wesley Clark about the Iraq war. All he said is that if he had been sitting in Congress last fall, he would have voted for the initial authorization to pursue the war option, but […]

Iraqis to Write Iraqi constitution Appointed Minister of Justice, Hashim Abdel Rahman Chalabi, said in Bahrain according to al-Hayat that the new Iraqi constitution would be entirely the creation of Iraqis, and that no foreign jurists would be involved in drafting it. After the story we just heard about the commercial laws, one wonders whether […]

US Opens Iraq’s Economy, but to What? The US occupying forces blatantly contravened the Fourth Geneva Convention on Monday, announcing that they were opening the Iraqi economy to foreign investment and setting low trade tariffs. The economy has been plagued by massive unemployment (estimated by many observers at 60%) since the fall of the Baath […]

Ayatollah Hussein al-Sadr: Close Iraq’s Borders to Mischief In a fluff piece in al-Zaman, Shiite cleric Hussein al-Sadr, a minor member of the al-Sadr family who preaches at Kazimiya near Baghdad, said his meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell had been very fruitful. The US presumably wants to use al-Sadr, who is a […]

Death Penalty to Return? The new Iraqi ministry of the interior (analogous to Homeland Security in the US) is pressing for the reinstatement of the death penalty in Iraq. Iyad Alawi and other ex-Baath officers have taken over this ministry, and have begun reconstituting the secret police. Apparently they want back the power to put […]