Breaking News Government To Be Formed

Juan Cole 03/10/2005

Breaking News: Government to Be Formed
Bombing at Shiite Mosque in Mosul Kills 36

It has been announced that the Shiites and the Kurds have reached sufficient agreement to elect a government when the parliament meets on March 16. If true, this is very big news. It wasn’t, however, a headline anywhere I looked on the Web. When I tried to check it at CNN I was informed for about an hour straight that Michael Jackson was late to court. I mean, it is outrageous that our supposed 24 hours a day cable news services baby-sit us this way with pablum.

In other news, a suicide bomber detonated a payload at a Shiite mosque in northeastern Mosul during a funeral, killing at least 36 persons. Elements in the guerrilla movement have been attempting to provoke a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites, but the increasingly powerful Shiites have consistently refused to be provoked in this way.

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page