Juan Cole

Reuters reports that Iraq’s parliament failed on Saturday to resolve the crisis produced by the veto of the election bill it had passed by vice president Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab who wanted better representation for Iraqi refugees abroad, many of whom are Sunni Arabs. Parliament could amend the bill, but legislators fear that they […]

Afghan insurgents greeted the inauguration of Hamid Karzai as president for another 5 years with a string of attacks and bombings that left 23 dead and dozens wounded on Friday. A motorcycle-driving suicide bomber in the southwestern province of Farah struck near a truck depot, killing 15 and wounding 38, according to AFP. In Kabul, […]

Two bombs rocked the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Thursday. The first, in the morning, targeted the city’s courthouse. The suicide bomber, wearing a vest, was stopped by security before he could get into the building. He detonated his payload outside, killing 20 persons and wounding 50. Thursday evening another bomber struck at a […]

Brian Cloughley writes in a guest editorial for IC When the Taliban insurrection in Pakistan began in earnest, in 2005, the Pakistan army did not have enough troops in North-West Frontier Province to combat the growing menace. It was not possible for the army and the paramilitary Frontier Corps to conduct operations without considerable reinforcement. […]

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, who is a Sunni Arab, has vetoed the election law recently passed by parliament. Iraq has a president (currently a Kurd, Jalal Talabani) and two vice presidents (the other is Adil Abdul Mahdi, a Shiite from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq). Al-Hashimi reportedly dislikes […]

Since both the US and China have traditionally been allies of Pakistan, any joint US-China call for better relations between the two major countries in South Asia would likely irk New Delhi. It did. Given that the current Minister of External Affairs, S. M. Krishna, had a long political career representing Karnataka State, with its […]

** Africa population tops a billion **The number of people in Africa has passed the one billion mark, the UN Population Fund says in a report.< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8366591.stm >

David Kilcullen’s bizarre prediction last spring that the Pakistani government could fall to the Taliban or al-Qaeda within six months was always downright looney, but recent events have underlined the extent of its daftness. The 650,000-strong Pakistani army has made mincemeat of the Pakistani Taliban wherever they have seriously taken them on. On Tuesday, for […]

Since she’s back, so am I. Below is a reprint edition of my essay from September 2008 comparing Sarah Palin to Muslim fundamentalists on select issues. Also check out Going Rouge: An American Nightmare from OR books, in which another of my Salon pieces on Palin is reprinted: Salon.comTuesday, Sep 9, 2008 03:12 PDTWhat’s the […]