Juan Cole

Of Fallujah and Kirkuk The US forces declared they had taken Samarra back away from the guerrilla resistance, though they admitted there there were still “pockets” of guerrillas. Although the US forces should be able to defeat the guerrillas in Samarra fairly handily, it is not clear that they can learn the language of diplomacy […]

Samarra Campaign Sistani Aide Insists on Elections Some 3000 US soldiers and 1000 Iraqi national guardsmen advanced into downtown Samarra on Friday, engaging in heavy fighting with the guerrilla resistance in that city. Thousands of residents fled north, and the city was shaken with constant explosions. Electricity and water were cut off. Although the US […]

Debate and Chalabi I wonder if more could not have been made about Bush’s constant zigzags on Iraq policy. First he was going to send Jay Garner. Then he suddenly switched off and sent Paul Bremer. First Bremer was going to be proconsul for years. Then he suddenly was going to hand off power to […]

Debate The one new thing I noticed in the debate was Kerry’s explicit reference to getting help for the US in Iraq from the Arab world. Maybe I just hadn’t been paying attention, but I hadn’t heard him make that explicit before. The Arab League meeting in mid-September was a mixed bag in this respect. […]

Some 50 Dead, 145 Wounded Guerrillas useda coordinated series of car bombs to kill around 50 persons, mostly children, and to wound 145 on Thursday. The biggest number of casualties came from the bombing of the ceremonial opening of a new water pumping station in West Baghdad. The injured included at least 10 US soldiers. […]

Rebuilding Iraq’s Universities Guest Editorial by Keith Watenpaugh Keith Watenpaugh kindly permitted me to reproduce some of his talk here. JRIC. Rebuilding Iraq’s Academic Community: Civil Society in a Time of Civil War How Should America’s Academic and Humanitarian Communities Respond to Iraq’s Coming Civil War and the Rise of Arab-Islamist Nationalism? Keith Watenpaugh Talk […]

President al-Yawir Decries “Collective Punishment” 13 Killed in Continued Battles Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawir strongly protested US air strikes against Iraqi cities, comparing them to Israeli tactics in Gaza and branding them a form of “collective punishment.” Collective punishment was a Nazi tactic during World War II, and was forbidden as a tool to occupying […]

Is Justice Being Delayed by Bush Administration Politics? Several high-profile FBI investigations, in which substantial progress have been made, may well have been put on hold by the Bush administration for political reasons. That is, it has been alleged to me that the White House may have leaned on the FBI– not to drop the […]

On the Virtues of Changing the Mind It is depressing for me to see George W. Bush on the stump doing a stand-up comedy routine about John Kerry, parroting the predictable line that Kerry has had more than one opinion about Iraq. Serious news reporters who have gone back over the record find that Bush’s […]