Juan Cole

Annan Condemns US Assault on Fallujah It seems to me that Kofi Annan’s letter attempting to forestall a US levelling of Fallujah puts the Allawi caretaker government, which rejected it, in a potential dilemma. The caretaker government was appointed by an envoy of Mr. Annan, so if he lacks the standing to speak out on […]

Al-Qubanji: Give us Indepencence AFP/ Ash-Sharq al-Awsat: Sadr al-Din al-Qubanji, a Friday prayers leader in Najaf, called on Persident George W. Bush on Friday to keep the promises he had made to the Iraqis, of “independence and the return of sovereignty.” He demanded, at the same time, that Iraq not be turned into an arena […]

Levine Guest Editorial: “We’re all Israelis Now.” We’re all Israelis Now By Mark LeVine, History, University of California, Irvine Author of Why they Don’t Hate Us: Globalization in a Post-9/11 World. Three years ago, as the pungent odor of what was left of the World Trade Center slowly pervaded my neighborhood, I wrote a piece […]

Meet Bubba Readers argued with me about this during the Democratic primary, but I maintained then that I thought it would be very difficult for a non-Southern Democratic candidate to get any southern state, and that without any of the South it would be difficult to win the election. Since Jack Kennedy was shot in […]

1 US Soldier Killed Guerrillas employed a roadside bomb to kill a US soldier near Salman Pak on Wednesday, and wounded one other. Ash-Sharq al-Awsat reports that guerrilas used a car bomb, which exploded on the road, killing or wounding 8 in the southeast corner of Bahgdad. AP summarizes the two incidents Thursday morning: ‘ […]

Fallujah and Allawi’s Fate Tom Lasseter of Knight Ridder reviews the pros and cons of the coming US attack on Fallujah for caretaker Prime Minister Allawi. If the attack is swift and successful, Allawi will be strengthened. If it is prolonged, the protests within Iraq and in the Arab world could mount and cause a […]

More on Lancet Stephen Soldz has more on why the Lancet article estimating 100,000 excess Iraqi deaths since the beginning of the war cannot lightly be dismissed, even if the headlines tended to take the upper limits of the estimates.

Mosul Car Bomb AMS PLedges Civil Disobedience Campaign Wire services report that guerrillas tried to use a car bomb to assassinate an Iraqi general in Mosul. The explosion killed seven soldiers and 4 civilians, but missed the general. In Basra, an assassination attempt on the chief of police, Muhammad Kadhim, failed, but left three of […]

Who Needs Sleep? CNN is calling Michigan, Minnesota and Hawaii for Kerry. The total is 249 Bush, 242 Kerry at 2:35 am. Kerry may well get Wisconsin, as well, giving him 252. If he gets Nevada, it would be Kerry 257 to Bush’s 254. Ohio settles it. The question is whether Ohio settles it sometime […]