Juan Cole

Top Ten Catastrophes of the Third Year of American Iraq The American war against Iraq began on March 20, 2003, so today is the third anniversary. The Himalyan mistakes of the American administration of the country in its first two years have by now been much analyzed — the punitive steps against even low-level Baath […]

Allawi: This is Civil War 35 Killed in Sectarian Violence Iyad Allawi, the former interim prime minister of Iraq, said Sunday that Iraq is in a civil war. ‘ “It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not […]

Bush’s Greater Middle East

Sunnis Reject US-Iran Talks Propose Oversight of Prime Minister Small protests were held by peace activists throughout the US and the world on Saturday. Some 7,000 came out in Chicago, e.g. In London, AP estimates 15,000. (There have been bigger anti-war protests in London). NYT says 6,000 came out in San Francisco, but few of […]

Sistani on Homosexuality [Andrew Sullivan has linked to this post, but makes three errors in as many sentences. 1) This is not a defense of anything. It is an explanation. Since I condemn Sistani’s stance as “sick,” I don’t understand how it can be viewed as a “defense.” 2) Sistani is not Islam. Sistani is […]

Right Blogosphere Scammed by Bogus Document Dump Maha at Daily Kos has it right. It is falling down funny. The Right blogosphere is going crazy about this document [ pdf] in the Iraqi documents made available by the US government this week. See also Sadly No. The notorious liar, Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard […]

AIPAC Impact on US foreign policy Political scientists John Mearsheimer (U of Chicago) and Stephen Walt (Harvard) bravely take on the issue of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington and the way it distorts US foreign policy in the Middle East. Most American Jews deeply disagree with the policies advocated by the American Enterprise Institute, the […]

Several US Soldiers Killed Pilgrims Targetted AP reports several incidents of sectarian violence on Friday, including concerted attacks on Shiite pilgrims heading to the holy city of Karbala. Al-Zaman says that by next Tuesday there will be 3 million Shiite pilgrims in Karbala for the 40th day mourning rites after the anniversary of the martyrdom […]

Bush Affirms Policy of “Preemptive” Attack Bush reaffirmed Thursday his policy of willingness to strike first against states he considers enemies. There is a real problem of definition here. If Bush means that he will strike at terrorists whom he has good reason to suspect of imminently carrying out an attack on the US, then […]