Juan Cole

Oil Workers Strike in Iraq Inflation Rate hits 70% amid stagflation Reuters reports on civil war violence in Iraq. Among the worst incidents: ‘ *MOSUL – Gunmen killed a family of five, including two children, after entering their home in the al-Zanjeeli district of Mosul 390 km north of Baghdad . . . MADAEN – […]

Helman Guest Editorial: Peril in Lebanon Ambassador Gerald B. Helman writes: ‘ The momentum that was imparted by the Security Council’s cease fire resolution (1701) on August 11, is in danger of dissipating. The initial deployment of Lebanese troops to the south seems stalled at an inadequate 3,000 men. Potential European troop contributors to a […]

Bush’s Arab Dream Palace Is it Narcissism? Bush said again on Monday that he would keep US troops in Iraq until 2009 and argued that for the US to withdraw would send a bad message to reformers in the region. He said he is concerned about that talk of civil war in Iraq and seemed […]

JonBenet Ramsey and Abeer al-Janabi Overseas readers who don’t watch US-based cable news may not know that there is a news blackout on the 24 hours news stations, which have shown endless hours of useless speculation on a ten year old small town murder case. Why the cable news channels in the US behave in […]

Sunni-Shiite Conflict takes New Turn CNN reports the civil war violence in the Baghdad-Diyala corridor. Al-Zaman/ DPA report that two members of Iraqi military intelligence were shot dead in the southern port city of Basra. [Al-Zaman says it is the third largest city in the country after Baghdad and Mosul, but I thought Basra was […]

McGreevy Guest Editorial: Lebanon: The Transnation Patrick McGreevy writes from Beirut: ‘ Some Western leaders are profoundly disturbed that Hezbollah, a non-state entity, should have such autonomy to act within and even beyond the borders of Lebanon. It seems an affront to Lebanon’s sovereignty and to the presumed foundations of a world in which citizens’ […]

Shiite reaction to Massacre: Blame on Sunni Mosques Sunnis Allege Reprisals on Mosques, Civilians Narratives of what happened on Sunday, when snipers targeted Shiite pilgrims as they passed through Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Baghdad, killing 20 and wounding nearly 300, are confused. What is clear is that there were two follow-ups to this violence. One […]

Lebanon War an Environtmental Disaster So says Fouad Hamdan writes in the Daily Star: ‘ An environmental catastrophe unfolded on July 12 when war broke out between Israel and Hizbullah. Around 1,000 people were killed in the course of the fighting and thousands more injured on both sides of the border. But in addition to […]

Shiite Pilgrims Slaughtered US losing Battle of Baghdad Guerrillas on rooftops let loose barrages of machine gun fire at Shiite pilgrims on foot as the moved through northern Baghdad to the shrine of Imam Musa al-Kazim in Kadhimiyah on a pilgrimage to commemorate his martyrdom. They killed at least 20 and wounded an astonishing 300. […]