Iraq

I cover questions about Iraq, Afghanistan, al-Qaeda and the Arab Spring in this recent interview at AskM (a program of the University of Michigan News and Information Service)

Egypt

Cole on the Middle East at O Globo’s “Milenio”

Juan Cole

My interview on Middle Eastern affairs with the O Globo television network’s “Milenio” program in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is now on line here. (After the short intro it is in English with Portuguese subtitles). Many thanks to Simone Delgado of O Globo‘s New York office for setting it up, and to Elizabeth Carvalho, the […]

Iraq

Sadrists to Demonstrate in Baghdad against US Troops Remaining

Juan Cole

One of the major consequences of the September 11 attacks ten years ago was that members of the Bush administration decided to “take advantage” of the resulting passions to pursue their long-planned vendetta against the government of Saddam Hussein. There followed the greatest US foreign policy disaster since the British occupied Washington, DC and burned […]

Iraq

Iraq Adopts Iran’s Backing of Assad

Juan Cole

Interview with me, mirrored from The United States Institute of Peace Iran Primer. Q. What impact will the call by the United States and major European powers for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down–followed by heightened U.S. and EU sanctions–have on Syria-Iran relations? Cole: They will push Syria even more into the arms of […]

Iraq

How to Avoid Bush’s Iraq Mistakes in Libya

Juan Cole

The illegal American invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation was so epochal a catastrophe that it spawned a negative phrase in Arabic, “to Iraqize” or `arqana. Tonight I heard an Alarabiya anchor ask a spokesman for the new government in Libya whether there as a danger of the country being “Iraqized.” He was taken aback […]

Iraq

Iraq Bombings unlikely to Change Minds on US Troop Withdrawal

Juan Cole

Some 80 people were killed and over two hundred wounded on Monday in a clearly coordinated set of bombings and attacks in 17 Iraqi cities. The prime suspect is radicalized Sunni Arabs who are typically called “al-Qaeda” in Iraq even though they likely have little connection to the original. The biggest toll came from two […]

Iraq

Iraq declines to Cut Syria Off

Juan Cole

As Syria passed another bloody Friday of protests, Arab journalists and now the New York Times are noting that the Iraqi government of PM Nouri al-Maliki has declined to withdraw its ambassador from Damascus or to put any significant pressure on Syria with regard to the suppression of protests. The NYT speculates that Baghdad has […]

Iraq War

Cole, ACLU, Sue CIA, FBI seeking Bloggergate Documents

Juan Cole

Spencer Ackerman at Wired reports on the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit launched on my behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union against the CIA, FBI, Department of Justice, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence. See also the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press. In the text of the lawsuit, ACLU lawyers […]

Iraq War

Kukis: Leave Iraq, Too

Juan Cole

Mark Kukis writes a guest column for Informed Comment: Leaving Iraq: Why total U.S. military withdrawal is best By Mark Kukis The Obama administration’s move to accelerate a U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan inadvertently highlighted an unsettled question about American forces in Iraq. Will U.S. troops leave Iraq entirely at the end of 2011, as outlined […]