Juan Cole

Bremer left Brass out of Loop on Iraqi Army Dissolution AFP reports that Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace says that the Joint Chiefs were never consulted by Paul Bremer over his decision to simply dissolve the Iraqi army last May. Since actually having an Iraqi army might have made […]

Women Demonstrate Demanding Equal Rights Small groups of women demonstrated in cities all over Iraq on Wednesday, demanding that equal rights for them be specified in the Fundamental Law now being drafted by the IGC, and that 40% of seats in parliament be set aside for women. The set-aside of seats for women has already […]

Japan invites Samawah Chieftains to Tokyo The tribal chieftains of the Samawah region have been invited to Tokyo in April for consultations about the best ways to rebuild their city, according to az-Zaman/ DPA. The Daily Star of Beirut recently published and interesting overview of the dire situation in Samawah. The assignment of Japanese Self […]

Sistani opposes Appointed Transitional Government The Jordan Times reported on the various plans being put forward for the July1 US hand-off to a sovereign Iraqi government. Since direct elections probably cannot be held before that date, the inclination seems to be to hand sovereignty to a perhaps expanded, but still appointed, Interim Governing Council. This […]

Arab-Americans and Bush I was glad to see Jack Shafer at Slate take on the awful NYT report about “Arab-Americans” giving big donations to Bush. Most of the donors cited were Iranians and Pakistanis. “Arab” is actually a linguistic category, like “Romance” or “Latin”. Most of the people in the arid zone stretching from Morocco […]

Informed Comment wins 2003 Koufax Award for Expert Blog Many thanks to all the kind readers who voted for Informed Comment, and to the authors of the progressive “Wampum” site for hosting the “awards ceremony” in cyberspace.

Ashura Coming Nir Rosen has an important piece in the Asia Times on the preparations for Ashura in Iraq. Ashura, the 10th of the month of Muharram, commemorates the martyrdom of the grandson of the prophet, Husayn. It is a time of mourning, sermons, poetry, weeping and processions with self-flagellation. Hundreds of thousands of Shiites […]

Bremer Pledges to Block Islamic Law Paul Bremer appointed Muhsin Abdul Hamid, the leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party (i.e. the Muslim Brotherhood) to serve on the Interim Governing Council. One could argue about whether this appointment was wise, but it is ironic that Bremer is now having to overrule his own appointee. Abdul Hamid […]

Brahimi Warns Iraqis of Civil War UN envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi knows whereof he speaks when it comes to civil war. He is Algerian, and watched his own country descend into a downward spiral of violence between secularists and Islamists in the 1990s. He has been intimately involved in diplomacy in Lebanon, helping end […]