Juan Cole

Shiites Compromise with Sunnis over Constitution Drafting Committee al-Sharq al-Awsat and AFP Jawad Maliki, the deputy leader of the Da`wa Party led by Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, affirmed yesterday that the parliamentary constitution-drafting committee agreed to increase the number of Sunni Arab members to 25. Of these, 10 would be non-voting advisors. Initially, Shiites […]

Friedman and Imaginary Troops Tom Friedman, writing in the New York Times, makes several policy decisions with regard to Iraq. The first is to stay the course until an effective Iraqi force could be stood up. Another is to find ways of re-involving the United Nations in Iraq. Both of these ideas have things to […]

48 Dead in Guerrilla Violence Suicide Bombing in Khalis Targets Iraqi Troops Knight Ridder reports that a suicide bomber in an Iraqi army uniform detonated his bomb belt in the midst of Iraqi soldiers eating lunch in Khalis north of Baghdad, killing at least 26 persons [AFP] and wounding 29. Early details were confused and […]

Apartheid for Arabs in Irbil? Iranian Kurds Riot An eyewitness has described for me by email driving through the north of Kurdistan and seeing enormous posters of Massoud Barzani (the new president of the Kurdistan super-province) after the manner of a cult of personality. When the Kurdistan parliament is in session, Irbil is closed to […]

Gitmo-by-the-Sea: 5-Star Holidays for Oppressed Christians: Fisher Guest Satire by William Fisher “Oppressed Christians: Looking for a five-star holiday? Have we got a deal for you! GITMO-By-The-Sea” Don’t laugh, folks. Our Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could just be poised to become the country’s hottest tourist destination for folks of faith. It’s hard to […]

Guerrillas Kill 29 Iraqis Tuesday, Wound over 100 in North 3 US Servicemen Dead Kurds Abducting Arabs, Turkmen in Kirkuk The Associated Press reports “And an American soldier was killed when a roadside bomb hit his convoy in southern Baghdad, the military said, adding that two other soldiers assigned to a Marine unit died in […]

21 Dead, 40 Wounded in Guerrilla Violence AFP reports *At a checkpoint between Baghdad and Baquba (to the northeast of the capital) at Khan Bani Saad, guerrillas sprayed a police checkpoint with machine gun fire, killing 4 and wounding 7. When help came, a car bomber struck, wounding another three soldiers. *In Tikrit a guerrilla […]

Barzani President of Iraqi Kurdistan UPI transmits from al-Hayat a report that the Kurds are upset with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari’s high-handed decision-making style. They say they will leave their coalition in parliament with the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance if Jaafari does not start consulting them more. It is not clear in the interim constitution […]

The Downing Street Memos and the Revenge of the Bloggers When Michael Smith of the London Times wrote about a further leaked British cabinet document on decision-making about the Iraq war in July 2003, he did not simply report the revelations in the document. Most commentators on the Smith story have missed his open acknowledgment […]