Arab World

Senator John McCain on the failed Basra campaign: ‘ Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said Sunday that Iraq’s military performed “pretty well” in its recent Basra assault despite the “mixed” results of the battle. . . the presumed Republican nominee for president defended Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government as increasingly effective in managing the war-torn […]

Frank Rich’s “Tet Happened . . . and No One Cared” is an elegantly written and argued examination of the current situation in Iraq that seems to me to pretty much nail it. Rich demolishes so many of the myths put out by McCain and the American Right generally. The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq […]

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that the Iraqi National Security Council met on Saturday. The heads of the major blocks in parliament attended, including Nassar al-Rubaie, leader of the Sadr bloc. Ali al-Adib of the Da`wa Party, which is part of the United Iraqi Alliance, said that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki “laid out the technical capabilities […]

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki suddenly reversed himself on Friday, pledging a freeze on attacks on militias. Just a day before he had been saying that he would send the Iraqi military in after the Mahdi Army in Baghdad. Given what happened to the army in Basra, where the Sadr Movement isn’t all that strong, I […]

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that clashes continued to be fought in Basra on Thursday between Iraqi government troops and the Mahdi Army militia. It also says that US troops in civilian clothing were targeted in the Shiite city of Hillah south of Baghdad. They were attacked by unknown gunmen and had to call in airstrikes […]

The Iraqi military made incursions into Sadrist neighborhoods in Basra on Wednesday, AP says. The show of force provoked fears of an outbreak of fresh fighting. It turns out that McCain had said that Muqtada al-Sadr’s influence was waning in a recent interview. But then when Muqtada reasserted himself, McCain claimed to have all along […]

Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday honored the militias of the parties in the United Iraqi Alliance, i.e. the Da’wa (Islamic Call) Party and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. They were singled out for having fought alongside government security forces, and some 10,000 of them were inducted into the […]

My column, “Why al-Maliki Attacked Basra,” is now available at Salon.com John McCain said he was surprised that Nuri al-Maliki would abruptly launch an operation against Basra. It seems to me that there are only two possibilities here. Either McCain really did not know and did not anticipate the trouble in Basra, in which case […]

The USG Open Source Center translates a discussion by Iraqis about Muqtada al-Sadr’s ceasefire with the government of PM Nuri al-Maliki, carried in Arabic on the Iranian al-Alam satellite channel. ‘Iran: Al-Alam TV’s ‘With the Event’ Program on Iraq, Al-Sadr TrendAl-Alam TelevisionMonday, March 31, 2008 Document Type: OSC Translated Text Tehran Al-Alam Television in Arabic […]