Juan Cole

Barzani Forbids Iraqi Flag; Baker in Baghdad The Pentagon says that violence was up substantially this quarter over last in Iraq. There was a decline violence and deaths in August, but July was so hellish that it frankly does not mean much. At August’s rates nationwide, surely 10,000 would be dying a year, which is […]

Mortar Shells Kill Dozens of Shiites in East Baghdad Iraq to take over Dhi Qar Province Reuters reports political violence throughout the country, which left at least 67 dead and dozens wounded. In the single biggest incident, Mortar shells slammed into a Shiite neighborhood in East Baghdad, causing a building to collapse on inhabitants and […]

Google and Michigan’s Library Google books is an astonishing, epochal development. But I am tired of journalists who write about it ignoring the fact that the core of the digitized collection is the 7 million volumes at the University of Michigan. It is always mentioned that Harvard and Oxford are participating. Last I knew, Oxford […]

Naguib Mahfouz, RIP Nobel prize-winning Arabic novelist and short story writer Naguib Mahfouz is dead at 94. Do yourself a favor and read him. If you want a window on Arab culture, forget the posturing politicians (who mostly actually work in English and French), and the American pundits who interpret the Arab world to us […]

Bush Maintains ending US Occupation of Iraq will Infuriate Terrorists Bush says that ending the Iraq occupation will open America to a terrorist attack. I can’t imagine why he says that. If we weren’t occupying Iraq, how would that infuriate al-Qaeda and the Muslim radical fringe? Can you imagine the discussions in the cave in […]

Diwaniyah Ceasefire in Doubt Spike in Death toll Continues, with over 50 dead Dan Murphy of the CSM writes about the increasing fragmentation of Iraqi politics and militias at the local level. He argues that Muqtada al-Sadr and even the powerful Kurdish warlords are losing control to local militant groups that take the law in […]

Israeli War on Lebanese Civilians Continues A top United Nations humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, said he was shocked on inspecting southern Lebanon to find it littered with deadly unexploded cluster bombs. These were for the most part dropped in the last three days of the conflict, when it was foreseen that there would be a […]

Rumsfeld Accuses Critics of Appeasement of Fascists The LA Times reports that ‘ Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday compared critics of the Bush administration to those who sought to appease the Nazis before World War II, warning that the nation is confronting “a new type of fascism.” ‘ (Click here for explanation of […]

Americans bombed Diwaniyah 26 Bodies found in Baghad On Wednesday morning in Iraq, guerrillas set off a bomb outside a military recruiting center, killing 12 and wounding 38. Two more US troops were announced dead, one from action in al-Anbar, and one from a humbee accident. The initial story, conveyed in the press and by […]