Juan Cole

120 Dead in Bombings, Clashes in Iraq 4 US Troops Killed Wire services report that 120 persons died in separate incidents in Iraq on Wednesday, the one-month anniversary of the “transfer of sovereignty” to the caretaker government of Iyad Allawi. The NYT says that guerrillas detonated a truck bomb outside a police recruiting station in […]

Cheney Watch Vice President Dick Cheney gave his stump speech in Utah on Wednesday, attempting to rally the Republican faithful while the national spotlight remained on the Democrats. Rebecca Walsh reports: Cheney said terrorists are as determined to destroy America as the “Axis powers” of Germany, Italy and Japan during World War II. Borrowing a […]

Iraqi Economy in Travail Ken Dilanian reports on the woes of the Iraqi economy. His general impression is that unemployment remains between 28 percent and 50 percent; that foreign investment is not coming in; that expatriate Iraqis are not investing; and that among the biggest setbacks was the stupid American decision to besiege Fallujah and […]

Arguing with Cheney Reuters reports that Dick Cheney was doing some counter-programming to the Democratic National Convention by speaking on the West Coast at Camp Pendleton. He said, “Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the perception of weakness.” This statement is half right and half wrong. Some […]

14 US Troops wounded by Mortar Fire in Baghdad 3 Iraqis die in Violence Paul Garwood of AP reports that on Tuesday, guerrillas successfully launched four or five mortars at the Green Zone in Baghdad that houses the caretaker government and the British and American embassies, wounding 14 US troops. Eleven were returned to duty. […]

Sunni Iraqis adopt Religious Radicalism Others Support Saddam Dan Murphy of the Christian Science Monitor reports on the way in which Sunni Iraqis are turning toward Salafi Islam. Salafis are sort of militantly Protestant Sunnis who reject the canons of medieval scholarship and strive to go back to the practice of the Prophet and his […]

Preoccupation with Iraq Slowed US, UK Response to Darfur Crisis The Foreign Policy Centre in the UK is issuing a report that blames the Iraq War for the inability of the US and the UK to respond in a timely way to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Although the US has applied diplomatic pressure and […]

Margaret Cho and an Iraq Blog I have been a fan of comedian Margaret Cho for years, and so was happy and surprised to see traffic coming from her site to mine. I found her appreciation of an Iraqi family’s blog touching. As someone who has been interested in Iraq for more than 30 years, […]

Clinton’s Low-Key Dissing of Bush Bill Clinton is perhaps the most gifted political orator of our generation, so it is worth considering how he dealt with Bush and the Iraq War issue in his speech Monday evening to the Democratic National Convention. He and the other Democrats went out of their way to avoid appearing […]