Juan Cole

Shiite Fighters Kill 70 Sunnis in Tal Afar Saudi King Abdullah Condemns Illegitimate US Occupation of Iraq Kim Gamel of AP reports that Shiite militants and some Shiite policemen went on a rampage in the northern Turkmen city of Tal Afar on Wednesday, killing 70 Sunnis indiscriminately, injuring another 30, and kidnapping 40 others. The […]

Al-Dhari on Year 4 of American Iraq The US government Open Source Center translates an interview with Sunni fundamentalist leader Harith al-Dhari, a leader of the Association of Muslim Scholars, printed by al-Safir newspaper in Lebanon. ‘ Head of Iraqi Muslim Scholars Interviewed on 4th Anniversary of ‘Invasion’: Interview with Shaykh Harith al-Dari, head of […]

McCain Checks into Cloud Cuckooland 116 Iraqis Killed in Day of Carnage Senator John McCain has contracted Rumsfeld’s Disease. This malady consists of a combination of bad temper, misuse of language to obfuscate reality, and a Panglossian optimism in the face of stubborn, sanguinary facts on the ground. McCain, for instance, hailed that deployment of […]

Green Zone Takes Rocket Fire New Offer of Jobs to Baathists Guerrillas fired a rocket into the Green Zone on Monday, shaking the US Embassy and Iraqi government offices but causing no casualties. Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, has weighed in with Tehran to release 15 British sailors and Marines captured in what the Iranians […]

Guerrillas Kill 5 US Troops Shiite Reprisals in Haswa Allawi Bid for New Coalition Founders Iran is considering trying the 15 British sailors it captured at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, in what it claims were Iranian territorial waters. British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Iran that it should not underestimate the seriousness […]

90 Killed in Wave of Bombings, Violence Two US troops were announced killed on Saturday. AP reporter Kim Gamel details a wave of bombings and mayhem across Iraq on Saturday. The deadliest attack was a suicide truck bombing at a police station in Baghad, which killed 20 and wounded 28, many of them police. Guerrillas […]

Reality-Based Legislation: House Dems Demand end of US War in Iraq in 08 The Democrats in Congress passed a supplemental funding bill for the Iraq War that included a demand that troops be withdrawn by August of 2008. Contrary to what John McCain alleged, the bill does not micromanage the conduct of the war. It […]

Iraqi Vice Premier Badly Wounded in Attack Iranians Take British troops Captive A Salafi Jihadi operative infiltrated the entourage of Iraqi Vice Premier Abdul Salam al-Zawba’i and detonated a belt bomb in his house on Friday, seriously injuring al-Zawba’i and hurting 17 other persons (some reports say it left 6 of his associates dead). Al-Zawba’i […]

4 US GIs Killed House Dems set to Pass ’08 Withdrawal Language Shiite on Shiite Violence in Basra House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to have put together a winning bill by both authorizing additional funding for US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan (something antiwar Democrats oppose) and by specifying a withdrawal date of 2008 (something […]