Juan Cole

Realism vs. Humanitarianism in Afghanistan and Iraq One element of this debate, it seems to me is not in actual doubt. That is the very early and correct Bush administration identification of al-Qaida as the source of the attack. Moreover, this assessment was based on intelligence to which any president would have had access. The […]

Realism vs. Humanitarianism in Afghanistan and Iraq Thanks to [TM] for further comments. He wrote: >Does Mr Cole believe that the current war in Afghanistan, and the coming >war in Iraq, are “humanitarian” interventions? One is a search-and-destroy >mission against the terrorists who attacked us, the other is to finally >remove the danger from an […]

History News Network 7-29-02: Culture Watch Should College Kids Be Required to Read About the Koran? By Juan Cole The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assigns three books to incoming students every year. This year, one of the books, by Michael Sells of Haverford College, is about the Koran. Amazingly, the assignment of […]

Coming Showdown in Pakistan Pakistan’s military dictator, Pervez Musharraf, was required by his country’s Supreme Court to hold parliamentary elections by October of 2002. He has attempted to set the elections up so that he could meet the formal requirement but keep most power in his own hands. Some of his moves have a populist […]

A Bluff on Iraq? The article by Mary Dejevsky in the Independent on the talk about an Iraq campaign being a “bluff” is foolish. There is not any doubt that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz intend to go to war against Baghdad, and the signs I’ve seen are that they have convinced President George W. Bush to […]

A car bomb that the driver intended to use to blow up government ministers in Kabul was intercepted when it had a collision. It is not clear if President Karzai was among the intended victims. Political parties in Pakistan are continuing to buck President Musharraf. There may well be a substantial confrontation between them and […]

Ethnic conflict is on the rise in Afghanistan, as evidenced by a number of incidents that do not appear to have been reported in the major U.S. media, though the brave and diligent wire service reporters on the ground have been filing them. These conflicts may well draw the United States military into one side […]

The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister (Igor Ivanov) is in Iraq, and reiterated his government’s opposition to a US strike on that country. He implied that the US has been lobbying the other members of the UN Security Council to go along. (France is also opposed, so far). Ivanov did, however, urge Iraq to bring back […]

McNeill meets Ismail Khan; and Development Aid The fighting between ethnic Tajiks (Sunni Persian speakers) around the northwestern city of Herat with ethnic Pushtuns brought a visit from the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Dan K. McNeill. He met with Herat’s governor/ warlord Ismail Khan, offering US good offices in ending the […]