Arab World

The Pentagon cannot account for the over $8 bn. given out to cronies in the first years of the Iraq occupation, money which came from Iraq’s oil proceeds to begin with. The reason is that in the chaotic days after the fall of the Baath government and the collapse of the old economy, Paul Bremer […]

Iraq

40 Killed in Bombings of Shiite Pilgrims in Iraq;
Constitutional Crisis Unfolds

Juan Cole

Despite Republican senator John McCain’s conviction that “We’ve already won that one,” i.e. the Iraq War, actually you couldn’t say either that the war is over or that things are going well politically in that country. It lacks a new government, the political wrangling is interminable, the apparatus of state is paralyzed, and big bombings […]

Iraq

US Ally Maliki & Octavia Nasr Both Praised Fadlallah

Juan Cole

So help me understand this. Nuri al-Maliki, still the Iraqi prime minister for the moment, expressed his appreciation for the accomplishments of the late Grand Ayatollah Hussein Fadlallah: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki paid tribute for late Fadlallah, who provided the “Islamic library” with “tens of books in jurisprudence, interpretation and Islamic culture.” “He devoted […]

Iraq

50 Dead in Baghdad Attacks on Shiites;
Netanyahu Warns of Eastern Front

Juan Cole

A series of bloody attacks killed some 50 persons across Baghdad in the midst of a massive Shiite pilgrimage to the shrine of Imam Musa Kazem A suicide bombing that targeted the pilgrims passing through the Sunni Arab district of Adhamiya on their way to Kazimiya killed 32 and wounded over 90. Sunni guerrillas launched […]

Iraq

Odierno: Kurdish-Arab Fighting may Require UN Force in post-American Iraq

Juan Cole

Despite the optimism obvious in the speeches of Vice President Biden on Iraq, the outbreak of fighting between the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces in the town of Qara Tappa in Diyala province on Sunday and Monday is a reminder of how divided Iraq remains on the eve of the US withdrawal of combat troops. […]

Iraq

On Fourth of July, Let Iraq Go

Juan Cole

The Fourth of July celebrates the Declaration of Independence of the American colonies of Great Britain, on the grounds that they deserved representative government and popular sovereignty– something denied to them by the British crown. Iraq was occupied by American troops in 2003 after an illegal invasion, and it is still so occupied. The viceroy […]

Afghanistan

Lessons of Petraeus’ Iraq for Petraeus’ Afghanistan

Juan Cole

President Obama’s appointment of Gen. David Petraeus to succeed Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander of US forces in Afghanistan signaled a continued commitment by the White House to a large-scale counter-insurgency campaign involving taking large swathes of territory, clearing it of insurgents, holding it in the medium term, and building up local government and social […]

Iraq

Twin Oil Disasters: BP and Iraq
Bloody Friday in Iraq Leaves 27 Dead, over 80 Wounded

Juan Cole

The wave of violence in Iraq on Friday, wherein guerrillas killed at least 27 and wounded dozens, underlined how fragile the country still is. In many ways, American Iraq resembles BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil gusher. In the cases both of Iraq and of Deepwater Horizon, oil men were trying to get a big reserves […]

Iraq War

Kirchner: Bush angrily said War would Grow US Economy

Juan Cole

Néstor Kirchner, former president of Argentina, revealed in an interview with Oliver Stone for the director’s documentary “South of the Border” that former US president George W. Bush was convinced that war was the way to grow the US economy. Here is the video: And here is the transcript of Kirchner’s account of the conversation […]