Iraq

Yesterday I explored the errors and fantasies in Gov. Mitt Romney’s WSJ op-ed on the Middle East. Here I will briefly go over the mistakes that the Obama administration has made in the region. Unlike the proposed blunders of Romney, I have to say, most of these are errors of omission or of an abundance […]

Afghanistan

Tom Ricks and The Generals: Why the US succeeded in WWII but not Since

Juan Cole

Tom Ricks, award-winning military journalist, gives the Nimitz Lecture on why the US military succeeded in WW II but had so much trouble in the Korean, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The book version is out shortly, Tom Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today See also Ricks’s invaluable blog

Iraq War

Netanyahu 2002: Iraq has Centrifuges ‘the size of Washing Machines’ to Produce A-Bomb

Juan Cole

Israeli PM Binyamin “Chicken Little” Netanyahu tried to scaremonger about Iraq in 2002, as his contribution to the Anglo-American war of aggression on that country. “there is no question whatsoever,” Netanyahu said, “that Saddam” was seeking nuclear weapons. He said that Israeli intelligence reported to him that Russian scientists and North Korea were on site […]

Iraq

A Tale of Two Insurrections: Syria, Iraq, and American Security

Juan Cole

Both Iraq and Syria saw massive violence on Sunday. But there is a key difference between the two, and therein lies a cautionary tale for Syria. In Iraq, guerrillas of the so-called “Islamic State of Iraq,” an al-Qaeda affiliate, set off car bombs in almost every single important town and city in the country, leaving […]

Iraq

Tutu Slams Tony Blair for Illegal Iraq War, boycotts Leadership Conference

Juan Cole

South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu made waves by refusing to attend the recent Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in Johannesburg because of the presence of former British prime minister Tony Blair. His reasoning? Blair is a war criminal because of his support for and participation in the 2003 George W. Bush invasion and occupation of […]

Iraq

Just Deserts: Iraqis get Iraq’s Oil, not Bush/Cheney (Muttitt)

Juan Cole

Gregg Muttitt writes at Tomdispatch: Mission Accomplished for Big Oil? How an American Disaster Paved the Way for Big Oil’s Rise — and Possible Fall — in Iraq By Greg Muttitt In 2011, after nearly nine years of war and occupation, U.S. troops finally left Iraq. In their place, Big Oil is now present in […]

Bahrain

Syria and the New Great Divide in the Greater Middle East

Juan Cole

With news of a series of bombings and attacks in Iraq, of kidnappings and reprisals in Lebanon, and an ongoing Civil War in Syria, anyone who looks at the map of the Greater Middle East cannot fail to see a new Great Divide. The Great Divide has three dimensions. 1. First, it pits the Shanghai […]

Iraq

Cole’s Opposition to Iraq War in January, 2003

Juan Cole

The Neocons, masters of disinformation, keep trying to put it about (and it is in the current Wikipedia article on me) that I somehow was initially supportive of the idea of going to war with Iraq. I was not. I thought it was a horrible idea and would end badly. Basically my position was the […]

Iraq

US Pentagon Trained Iranian terrorists in Nevada: Hersh

Juan Cole

For those who missed this this weekend. The intrepid Seymour Hersh reports at the New Yorker that the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) of the US military gave members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK or People’s Holy Jihadis) training in signals intelligence at a facility in Nevada during the Bush era. The MEK was then […]