Juan Cole

60 Dead, including US Major, 2 British Soldiers, CBS Crew Parliamentary Delegation Planned to Basra The FCC will investigate the placing by the Bush administration of “video news releases” full of “good news” about Iraq on US television channels, passing them off as real news. Having defeated the Soviet Union, the US government seems increasingly […]

55 Dead in Civil War Member of Parliament wounded in Attack al-Zaman/ DPA: An aide of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani called [Ar.] Sunday for the Iraqi tribesmen to convene a wide conference in order to find aways of stopping the shedding of blood in Iraq. US firms bidding on contracts to provide foodstuffs to Iraq […]

Iran Cleans up in Iraq Iran is perhaps the only unambiguous winner in the new situation in Iraq, and its foreign minister was basking in the glow on Saturday. On Friday, Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari defended Iran’s right to have a civilian nuclear energy program. That can’t be what Washington was going for in […]

3 GIs Dead So Far, 18,200 US Troops Wounded in Iraq See Nir Rosen’s important article, “Iraq is the Republic of Fear” in WaPo today. Reuters rounds up the civil war violence in Iraq on Saturday. By my count, at least nineteen were reported dead. Three GIs were announced dead, two in a helicopter crash […]

Italians to Pull Out nearly Half of Troops in June Sectarian struggle among Tribes at Suwayra Congrats to Mariam Karouny for an excellent story on how the Virtue (Fadhila) Party is staging what she calls a “go-slow” in Basra’s oil industry to protest the federal government’s refusal to appoint a member of Virtue as Minister […]

Arguing with Bush and Blair The news conference of Bush and Blair on Thursday evening was unexpectedly dominated by Iraq. I’m going to just pull out some passages worthy of comment, not in order. In fact, the first is from the end: ‘Q: Mr. President, you spoke about missteps and mistakes in Iraq. Could I […]

Iraq’s My Lai Friday morning, guerrillas used a car bomb to kill at least 9 persons [later reports say 9] at an East Baghdad market, wounding 31. AP had reported 13 killings on Thursday, including two US troops. Al-Sharq al-Awsat said 20 were wounded. The neo-Baath Party (well that is most likely who it is) […]

Iran Offered Recognition of Israel, Nuclear Cooperation Bush: “How dare you!” In 2003, Iran offered to come in from the cold in a proposal to George W. Bush. Recognition of Israel within 1967 borders, pressure on Hizbullah and the Palestinians to moderate, signing the additional protocols of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, full cooperation with the […]

Maliki: Iraqis in Control of Own Security within 18 Months 50 dead in fresh violence Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Wednesday that Iraq will be able completely to handle security throughout the country within 18 months. He had earlier suggested that Coalition troops could leave by the end of this year. UpdateNewsday covers the […]