Juan Cole

British Sailors Held by Iran The Scotsman reports “Foreign Office fury” at Iran’s capture of 8 British sailors when they strayed over to the Iranian side of the Shatt al-Arab. The Shatt is a mile-wide body of water created by the union of the Tigris and Euphrates, which then flows into the Persian Gulf. The […]

US Has Lost War for Hearts and Minds in Iraq Guy Dinmore and Alex Barker of the Financial Times report that some military analysts believe that the US has lost the wider war for hearts and minds in Iraq, and that the complex Sunni Muslim insurgency is defeating efforts by the relatively small US military […]

Neocons can’t Spell A reader asked me to comment on the controversy over whether an Iraqi intelligence agent was detailed to al-Qaeda in Kuala Lumpur to be the guy that picked people up at the airport. It was covered by the Washington Post after the allegation was made by 9/11 Commission member John Lehman, former […]

6 US Servicemen Reported Dead in Iraq, 11 Iraqis Monday’s toll (still incomplete but more complete than any one article I saw in any one language): Guerrillas sent a videotape to Associated Press with views of four US Marines lying dead in a walled compound in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The bodies appear to have […]

Iraq War not Worth it: 52% of Americans A new Washington Post/ABC poll shows that a majority of Americans now feels that the Iraq War was not worth it. It cost too many US lives, according to 70% of them, and 51% thought that it had not made Americans any safer. Not only has President […]

Najaf Calming; Police to be Trained in Urban Warfare Al-Hayat reports that previous disputes between Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and junior cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have now been completely resolved. One last step has been the appointment of a new prayer leader at the mosque connected to the shrine of Ali, who would be neither a […]

US Marine Killed; 23 Iraqis Killed in Separate Attacks; US Helicopters mistakenly Kill 5 Policemen at Samarra’ Wire services report several violent incidents on Sunday. Anbar province: Guerrillas fighting US troops in Anbar Province, which covers Ramadi and Fallujah, killed a US Marine on Sunday. The Marines killed 4 of the guerrillas. Baghdad: Guerrillas ambushed […]

National Congress Planned; Muqtada Invited Chalabi mediates with Kurds Al-Hayat: On Sunday, the preparatory board met to begin planning a national congress of 1000 notables, politicians, religious leaders and tribal sheikhs to be held in July. It will involve twenty members of the old Interim Governing Council, including Sheikh Abdul Karim al-Muhammadawi, against whom an […]

Thousands of Indian Shiites Protest US Policies in Iraq Thousands of Indian Shiites came out into the streets of New Delhi Sunday to protest harsh US policies in Iraq and to demand that the United Nations take the leading role in putting the country back on its feet. They were supported by Hindu friends. The […]