Juan Cole

The trial of Iraqi journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi for assaulting W. with a shoe will begin later this week in Baghdad. Al-Zaidi, who became a hero in much of the Muslim world, is planning a lawsuit against the Iraqi security forces for beating him while he was in custody, on the grounds that they tortured him. […]

I was in Long Beach,Ca. on Saturday for the annual conference of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, where Pastor Rick Warren and I were both headliners. Also appearing on the stage Saturday evening were Melissa Etheridge and Salman Ahmad, singing Ring the Bells. Before I go further, I just want to praise MPAC as the […]

Shoewhack (v.) To assault someone with footwear in such a way as to humiliate that individual, especially at a moment of supposed triumph or obvious hypocrisy. A shoewhacking generally involves an element of surprise. It is especially appropriate for individuals guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors who have for reasons of wealth and power nevertheless […]

The Iraqi parliament has rejected a draft bill submitted by the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki specifying the rules under which some 4,000 British troops and small contingents from Australia, El Salvador, Estonia and Romania may remain in Iraq past Dec. 31, 2008. The vote was 80 to 68. The Sadr Movement, which opposes […]

The employees of the Interior and Defense ministries who were arrested earlier this week were released on Friday at the insistence of Interior Minister Jawad al-Bulani, who just returned from abroad. He appears to have seen the arrests as a strike at him and his ministry. Muntazir al-Zaydi, the journalist who shoebushed the US president, […]

Gitanjali Bakshi writes in a guest op-ed for IC: “The Mumbai attacks and a potential resurrection of the ‘War on Terror’ threaten to polarize the India-Pakistan, Israel-Palestine nexus. If not dealt with carefully, these attacks may exacerbate inter-state rivalries and consequently encourage the growth of terrorist networks instead of actually quelling the problem. * * […]

I present below the top 10 reasons for which President-Elect Obama should stick to his guns and withdraw US troops from Iraq despite any resistance he may get from the US officer corps and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. In fact, it was little noted in the US press that Gen. Ray Odierno, US commander […]

The Ninevah Provincial Council has voted to delay provincial elections, scheduled for January 31. The council does not actually have the authority to delay the elections, which have been set by the federal parliament. The move suggests severe Kurdish-Arab tensions in the province. Since Sunni Arabs, the majority in Ninevah and Mosul, boycotted the 2005 […]

The news from Iraq on Wednesday shows that the Iraqi government’s hold on power is fragile, and that it faces shadowy coup plotters from within and a continued guerrilla insurgency from without. Parliament is so divided that it had to go home after vehement wrangling in which the shoe-throwing journalist, Muntazar al-Zaidi, figured prominently. Al-Zaidi […]