Juan Cole

Rockets Fired at Italian Base News from Italy about Iraq via a kind reader there: Drawing on ANSA News agency (Rome): “Two rockets (NB: Italian journalists aren’t very precise with military terminology, you never know what really was fired) exploded today at dawn inside the “Tallil” base near Nassiriya, where most of the Italian contingent […]

Rockets Fired at Italian Base News from Italy about Iraq via a kind reader there: Drawing on ANSA News agency (Rome): “Two rockets (NB: Italian journalists aren’t very precise with military terminology, you never know what really was fired) exploded today at dawn inside the “Tallil” base near Nassiriya, where most of the Italian contingent […]

Wolfowitz and the Marsh Arabs Mickey Kaus responds to my explanation (below) of my view of the relative authority of Muqtada al-Sadr and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. He says, however, that I compared Wolfowitz to Saddam and that I was in his view too “shrill” to be “completely reliable” as a result. But this is […]

Wolfowitz and the Marsh Arabs Mickey Kaus responds to my explanation (below) of my view of the relative authority of Muqtada al-Sadr and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. He says, however, that I compared Wolfowitz to Saddam and that I was in his view too “shrill” to be “completely reliable” as a result. But this is […]

US War Planes Kill 40 Iraqis Near the Syrian Border The NYT report on the US helicopter gunship attack that killed 40 Iraqis, including 15 children and 10 women is typical of reporting on this incident in showing puzzlement at what actually happened. The US military claims that they were hitting arms smugglers coming across […]

US War Planes Kill 40 Iraqis Near the Syrian Border The NYT report on the US helicopter gunship attack that killed 40 Iraqis, including 15 children and 10 women is typical of reporting on this incident in showing puzzlement at what actually happened. The US military claims that they were hitting arms smugglers coming across […]

Sistani and al-Sadr: Demonstrations and Counter-Demonstrations Mainstream Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and the young sectarian leader Muqtada al-Sadr are now locked in a battle of wills, according to az-Zaman. Several hundred Sistani supporters braved the dangerous streets of Karbala Wednesday to protest the continued battles near the shrine of Imam Husain and demanding that all […]

Sistani and al-Sadr: Demonstrations and Counter-Demonstrations Mainstream Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and the young sectarian leader Muqtada al-Sadr are now locked in a battle of wills, according to az-Zaman. Several hundred Sistani supporters braved the dangerous streets of Karbala Wednesday to protest the continued battles near the shrine of Imam Husain and demanding that all […]

Poll: Muqtada Second Most Popular Politician in Iraq Roula Khalaf of the Financial Times reports the results of a poll of 1600 Iraqis from all major ethnic groups. The results confirm that radical young Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is holed up in Najaf as his militiamen fight the Americans, has emerged as among the […]