Juan Cole

Political Crisis Worsens as Sectarian War Threatens The Financial Times reports further on the fighting in Adhamiyah on Monday and Tuesday, asking whether the incident suggests greater Sunni Arab backing for the guerrillas. But I am told, and the Baghdad press also reports, that the real significance here was that the Shiite death squads in […]

Shiites Stick with Jaafari 26 Dead, with clashes in Adhamiyah, Ramadi 26 Iraqis died in guerrilla violence on Monday. 17 corpses surfaced in Baghdad, and another 9 persons died in violence around the country. American sources say that in the northern Baghdad district of Adhamiyah, a neighborhood militia fought a 9-hour-long pitched battle with Iraqi […]

Americana in Arabic Library There has been a wonderful public response to my plea for contributions to the Global Americana Institute and our hopes to get the works of Ben Franklin, Thomas jefferson, and others into Arabic. The interest has been so great that I thought I would tip readers to two important web sites […]

A Canadian Fix for the Iran Crisis? Can do, or CANDU? Guest Editorial by Jim Borynec ‘ Iran and the USA are involved in a major diplomatic tussle over nuclear technology. USA claims that Iran is building a bomb while IRAN claims that peaceful nuclear power is their right under article IV of the Non-Proliferation […]

Salon.com on Mearsheimer and Walt My article on the Mearsheimer and Walt piece, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” is out in Salon.com. Actually, my discussion focuses on the noise around the article, not its substance. The substance seems to me unobjectionable. A congressman told me not so long ago, “Juan, I’m glad you’re […]

Americana in Arabic A Challenge to Philadelphia Long-time readers know that as a result of the September 11, 2001, attacks and subsequent events, I decided a couple of years ago that something had to be done about the woeful lack of understanding between the United States and the Muslim world. There will always be differences, […]

Government Talks Postponed as 35 Die Shiites Reject Hard Line Sunni Speaker The Shiite religious parties of the United Iraqi Alliance took revenge Sunday on the Sunni Arab religious parties that had joined an attempt to unseat UIA prime ministerial candidate Ibrahim Jaafari. The UIA rejected Tariq al-Hashimi, the secretary general of the Iraqi Accord […]

Afghanistan Between Opium and Taliban Yes, there still is a war in Afghanistan. Seven were killed in it on Sunday, and over 40 on Saturday. Accusations against the US are swirling of having killed innocent civilians. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber wounded 3 British troops. See also Barnett Rubin’s expert appraisal of the situation in Afghanistan. […]

Iraq Swindled of Millions by US Firms Instability Spills over onto Lebanon’s Nasrullah Guerrilla violence killed 11 in Iraq on Saturday, including a British soldier in Basra. Guerrillas set off two car bombs in Baghdad, one that targeted police in a Shiite area. In a separate incident, a US soldier was killed in a bombing […]