Juan Cole

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 […]

Renewed Iraqi Monarchy a Bad Idea I’ve heard rumors that the idea of imposing a member of the Hashemite monarchy on Iraq is again making the rounds in Washington. This is a very, very bad idea. Some people think that it will reassure the Sunnis, since the Hashemites are Sunnis. But neither Sunni Arab nationalists […]

Iraq and Vietnam Max Cleland, former Georgia senator and a decorated war hero from the Vietnam era, who lost three limbs in that war, is comparing Iraq to the Vietnam War. When he says it, it is chilling. (Note, he was defeated in his campaign for another term in the senate by some chickenhawk Republican […]

Three US Troops Wounded Guerrillas launched two separate rpg attacks on US military convoys in the Mosul region on Saturday, wounding three US soldiers. There was also an explosion in Falluja.

Three Way Summit in Berlin Ends “in disaster” France’s Jacques Chirac refused to compromise on two key issues at the Berlin summit between Britain, Germany and France. The meeting was a “public relations disaster,” according to Wolfgang Proissl, the foreign editor of the Financial Times Deutschland, reported the BBC. French President Jacques Chirac said, “There’s […]

Doctors Optimistic about Aqila al-Hashimi Her physicians, who have operated once and planned a second operation, are guardedly optimistic about the prospects of Aqila Hashimi, the member of the Interim Governing Council who was attacked on Saturday. She suffered a bullet wound in the leg, and two in the abdomen, injuring her liver, intestines and […]

100,000 Gangsters in Iraq An official with the international Red Cross/ Red Crescent in Amman told al-Sharq al-Awsat on Saturday that the 100,000 members of criminal gangs constituted the second largest army in the country. (This number would be larger than the British contingent, but smaller than the 130,000 or so US troops). He said […]