Juan Cole

Sadrists to Boycott Elections: Daraji Shaikh Abdul Hadi al-Daraji, a lieutenant of the young Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, said Monday that Muqtada would not contest elections while Iraq was suffering American occupation. He said he expected the Sadr Movement to boycott the elections. Darraji said, according to AFP, “We believe that the elections under occupation […]

Violence Kills 23 US Soldiers Wounded at Karama Al-Arabiyah is reporting that guerrillas detonated a car bomb near a national guard facility in Mosul, killing or wounding several persons on Monday morning. Also, US war planes attacked Sadr City on Monday, killing 5 and wounding 48. Al-Arabiyah showed wounded children in the hospital. A rocket […]

Bush Falsehoods about Iraq Adam Entous of Reuters is too polite to put it this way, but the conclusion is easily extracted from his article that Bush played fast and loose with the facts on Iraq last week. Bush said that the UN electoral advisers are on the ground. In fact, there are only a […]

5 US Troops, at least 9 Iraqis Dead Violence up 36 Percent in Iraq The incidents of violence on Friday and Saturday in Iraq that appeared in the newspapers were a very small proportion of the whole. The press did tell us that guerrillas killed 5 US troops in separate incidents on Friday and Saturday. […]

Two Faces of Bush This graphic is part of a new Democratic Party initiative to focus on the “two-facedness” of George W. Bush, which is apparently conceived broadly. The thing the graphic most reminded me of was Bush’s angry performance at the Cabinet meeting that discussed Fallujah in early April of 2004, where Newsweek says […]

US Assault on Ramadi Rockets in Baghdad Kill 4 Sadrists, AMS threaten Fresh Uprisings President George W. Bush cited a poll done in June and July to argue that Iraqis are more optimistic about their future than Americans are about theirs. First of all, even if this were true, it is not good news for […]

Of Iron Fists and Oil Sabotage Marine Killed in Anbar Guerrillas in Anbar Province killed a Marine on Thursday. US forces clashed with guerrillas in Samarra, signalling a breakdown of the truce earlier worked out between city elders and US commanders, which would have provided extensive reconstruction aid in return for the city’s acceptance of […]

Violence, Allawi, Sistani and Elections Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani continues to be concerned as to whether elections will be held in January in Iraq, and whether the outcome will reflect the Shiite majority in Iraq. He is worried that the system adopted, of nation-wide party lists, favors a small set of parties, mainly expatriate. Since […]

Iraq Violence Kills at Least 24, Wounds over 100 Sistani Criticizes Election Plans The guerrilla war and American military assertiveness together wrought havoc in several areas of Iraq once again on Wednesday. Baghdad In downtown Baghdad, guerrillas used a car bomb to strike at persons in a retail district who were waiting to sign up […]