Juan Cole

Sunni Exit Plan? Robert Collier of the San Francisco Chronicle has a very important article today on Sunni Iraqi’s own exit plan for the US, which is much more nuanced than one might have imagined. Excerpts: ‘ “It’s impossible for them or us to fix an exact schedule” for troop withdrawal, said Isam al-Rawi, a […]

Islamic Law Primary in Iraqi Constitution Thousands demonstrate against Federalism Kurdish Masses demand right to Secede Guerrillas ambushed a group of special police in Baghdad on Saturday, killing two of them. There was also a bombing of police in Fallujah. Altogether, al-Sharq al-Awsat says, some 11 Iraqi police and civilians were killed by guerrilla action […]

Village Voice on Feith US foreign policy supports the withdrawal of Israeli colonizers from the Palestinian Gaza Strip. But the outgoing number 3 man at the Pentagon, the son of a founder of the proto-fascist Likud Party, has his own foreign policy and fanatically favors the aggressive expansion of Israel and further expropriation of Palestinian […]

Visser on Shiite Separatism in Iraq Reidar Visser’s “Shi‘i Separatism in Iraq: Internet Reverie or Real Constitutional Challenge?” [pdf] is now available online. It is a very serious piece of research and lays out the details of an important but little-examined political movement in the south.

Sistani Opposes Ceding Kirkuk to Kurdistan Sadrists Demonstrate against Federalism Al-Zaman: On Friday, a major split became apparent among the Shiite clerics of Iraq on the issue of a federated state. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani himself maintained a studied silence on the issue. He is reported initially to have opposed the establishment of further confederacies […]

Guest Editorial: Amendment and Empire Andrew Arato Amendment and Empire ‘ Constitutional amendment rules are beautiful things. They signify the sovereign right of a political community and its legitimate representatives to fashion and revise their political rules and institutions. Both Jefferson and Madison, though at odds concerning the nature and frequency of desirable constitutional amendments, […]

Bush Administration and ‘Democracratic Process’ In Iraq: The Dark Details Revealed An informed reader writes: ‘ From the now-unclassified State Department Report to Congress – 15 December 2003: “On November 15, the CPA and the Governing Council (GC) agreed to and announced a plan to expedite the process of transferring authority to the Iraqi people. […]

Health Care for our Troops Byron Williams reports: ‘ WITH the percentage of American troops in Iraq who are National Guard or Reserve forces estimated at 40 percent, one in five National Guard members have no health care. The U.S. Government Accountability Office further estimates that this number rises to 40 percent when accounting for […]

More on Amiriya Demonstration An informed reader writes: ‘ You had a brief mention today: “Al-Sharq al-Awsat: Hundreds of residents of Amiriyah, a district of Baghdad, demonstrated Thursday in protest against the recent killing of three men there in a joint US-Iraqi military sweep.” Reuters also ran the story . . . I recently wrote […]