Juan Cole

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that guerrillas set off six coordinated bombs in Shiite areas of Baghdad on Monday, killing 34 and wounding over 100, and raising fears that Iraq was slipping back into major violence. The pan-Arab daily summarizes the explanations being proffered for the resurgence of violence in the Iraqi capital. These include: 1) […]

Barack Obama continues to shake up the world with his new ideas, demonstrating himself again among the more creative and bold leaders the world has seen in the past half-century. In Prague on Sunday, he called for the US to lead a drive to abolish nuclear weapons: ‘ The existence of thousands of nuclear weapons […]

My talk at the New America Foundation on the need for a new Western relationship with the Muslim world, in connection with my new book, “Engaging the Muslim World,” was shown on C-Span 2 this weekend and is now also available at YouTube. Engaging the Muslim World End/ (Not Continued)

Turkey relented on Saturday and agreed to allow Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark, to become head of NATO if a Turkish assistant was appointed for him. Milliyet reports: ‘Erdogan said Turkey had received “guarantees” from Obama that one of Rasmussen’s deputies would be a Turk and that Turkish commanders would be present at […]

Adam L. Silverman writes in a guest editorial for IC: On 1 April 2009 Juan Cole briefly wrote about the events surrounding the arrest of the Fadl District Sons of Iraq (SOI) leader. Cole, in commenting on remarks reported in al Sharq al Awsat [“The Middle East”] correctly indicated that by siding with the Coalition […]

The NATO summit is off to a shaky start. It was supposed to elect a new leader, and the Obama administration backed Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen for the role. Rasmussen has been a strong supporter of the NATO mission in Afghanistan, where there are Danish troops, at a time when many European countries […]

1. Exaggerating the threat. An Afghan army foot patrol was attacked by guerrillas in Helmand Province on Wednesday, according to AP. US and Afghan soldiers responded, engaging in a firefight. Then the US military called in an air strike on the Taliban, killing 20 of them. On Tuesday, a similar airstrike had taken out 30 […]

Avigdor Lieberman, the Moldovan night club bouncer, is now foreign minister of Israel. The world has had a lot of fun laughing at the pronouncements of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who stands falsely accused of threatening to wipe Israel off the face of the map. But Ahmadinejad has protested that it would be wrong to […]

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that the Sadr Movement led by Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr is facing the possibility of internal factionalism, among imprisoned members and among those under Iranian influence. Muqtada al-Sadr had created two special operations units within his Mahdi Army, the League of the People of Truth (led by Sheikh Qays al-Khaz`ali) and the […]