Juan Cole

Muqtada declines to See Delegation Marines Launched Attack without Approval Alex Berenson and John Burns of the New York Times make the explosive allegation that local Marines in Najaf launched the attack on Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Militia on August 12 all on their lonesome, without direction from the Pentagon in Washington. At most, they had […]

Readings on Iraq Readers often ask me to recommend books to read, which are fairly readable, on Iraq. Being an academic, I’m not sure I’m always the best judge of what is readable (specialists like a lot of detail, and get used to dealing with it). But let me try to step back and make […]

New Clashes in Najaf 3 US Troops Announced Killed 19 Iraqis Dead, 101 Wounded Dean Yates of Reuters reports that fighting broke out in Najaf again on Monday between US troops and the Mahdi Army militia. In the heart of Najaf, U.S. forces backed by tanks exchanged fire with militiamen entrenched around the sacred Imam […]

Harkin: Cheney is Cowardly Iowa Senator Tom Harkin has let Dick Cheney have it over Cheney’s questioning of John Kerry’s ability to understand the war on terrorism–calling the vice president a “coward”. CNN quotes him, “It just outrages me that someone who got five deferments during Vietnam and said he had ‘other priorities’ at that […]

Majority Report Have been doing a lot of radio, which I enjoy because often the discussion can get to the bottom of things. Will be on Majority Report at Air America with Janeane Garofalo & Sam Seder Monday 8/16 around 8-9 pm EST.

Washington Post Online Discussion My online discussion with readers today is at Washingtonpost.com.

WaPo and NYT Duel on Sigificance of National Congress One of the wonderful things about the internet is that it is easier than ever to see lots of news reports on the same event and to get a sense of the different angles that reporters work in reporting them. There is a night and day […]

Fadlallah: Americans must be Forced to Withdraw Just saw an interview on al-Jazeerah with the Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Husain Fadlallah, who has been in Beirut since 1965 but is from Najaf. (Fadlallah, an independent, has strained relations both with the ayatollahs in Iran and with the Hizbullah in Lebanon, though he may have […]

Al-Haeri Weighs in Al-Jazeerah’s crawl is saying that Grand Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri, based in Qom, has issued a fatwa or ruling that no Iraqi Muslim may fight another Muslim on behalf of the current regime in Iraq and its American backers. Al-Haeri is sometimes called the “fifth” grand ayatollah of Najaf, the other four being […]