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Here’s my Friday op-ed for The Daily Star at http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/09_08_03_e.asp Shiite divisions give the US breathing room Juan Cole The Daily Star, 8/9/03 Most Shiite leaders in Iraq have made a tactical decision not to resist the Anglo-American occupation during the coming year. They hope the US, in recreating Iraq as a parliamentary democracy, will […]

*A US soldier was shot to death in the ritzy Mansur district of Baghdad on Friday, but whether it was the work of a guerrilla is unknown. Some 12 US troops were wounded. Six were wounded when guerrillas in Mosul hit their vehicle with a rocke propelled grenade. A bomb blew up two humvees near […]

*Guerrillas in Karada, Baghdad directed small arms fire from their vehicle at two US soldiers from the 1st Armored Division on Wednesday night, killing one soldier on the spot. The other died later on from his wounds. One of them was identified as: – Army Staff Sgt. Brian R. Hellerman, 35, Freeport, Minn. The previous […]

*The bombing of the Marriott in Jakarta by the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyya is very bad news. It will hurt Indonesia’s tourism and foreign investment, which is the goal. They want to destabilize the government of Mrs. Megawati, which is the freest Indionesians have known. If Indonesians can be reduced to poverty and induced ro rage […]

*Three US soldiers were slightly injured in Falluja on Tuesday along with 3 Iraqi policemen, according to AP. The Americans had joined Iraqi police in fending off an angry crowd that attacked on the police station there that used rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. CNN covered this very cursorily according to the transcript. AFP reports […]

*Five US soldiers were wounded in Iraq Monday, along with an Iraqi translator, according to AFP. In one attack, guerrillas gutsily fired an anti-tank rocket near Baghdad police headquarters, wounding 3. The other attack took place on the dangerous road to the airport. On Sunday, a US soldier and two Iraqis were killed by a […]

*People in Baghdad are still suffering with a crime wave that includes kidnappings, burglaries, car jackings and assassinations. Kidnappers demanded $100,000 for the return of his son to a physician recently, according to In`am Kajahji of al-Sharq al-Awsat. He bargained them down to his new Mercedes Benz. Others have had to sell their really new […]

*Iraqi guerrillas killed one US soldier and wounded three others over Friday night/ Saturday morning. They fired a rocket propelled grenade at their convoy as it was moving north of Baghdad. Remote control bombs in Tikrit injured two US soldiers after the burial of Uday and Qusay. *AP is reporting that a close aid to […]

*Seven US troops were wounded in various attacks on Friday, some only lightly. There were 8 attacks in 24 hours west of Baghdad, suggesting new levels of organization. (So much for the dampening effect of executing Uday and Qusay). Also, as soon as the new Polish unit got to Hilla in the south, they came […]