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Middle East

Iraq

Lessons from Past Western Incursions in the Middle East

Juan Cole

The video of my appearance at the New America Foundation is now online. Many thanks again to kind host Steve Clemons. The short version, covering some of the same points, can be read at Tomdispatch.com, which is carrying my essay on Bonaparte and Bush.

Iraq

Surge in Deaths 85 percent in US custody Are Sunni Arabs

Juan Cole

The Bush administration talking points on the Iraq War are that the troop escalation has reduced violence and made Iraq safer for Iraqis, that the major threat in Iraq is self-avowed al-Qaeda devotees, and that Iran and the Shiites are just as deadly a threat as the Sunni Arab guerrillas. The facts? The Associated Press […]

Iraq

Troops on Ground tune out "Happy Talk" from Bush

Juan Cole

Tina Susman of the LAT finds that the privates and specialists among US troops in Iraq are dismissive of the ‘happy talk’ they hear from Bush and some of their commanders about the way the war is going. They see the realities on the ground, they lose friends to roadside bombings, they see evidence that […]

Iraq

Iranian Troops Come into Kurdistan

Juan Cole

Iranian troops came into the Iraqi territory of Kurdistan, seeking revenge on the PEJAK faction of Kurds that has launched terror attacks on Iranian soil. Senator John Warner called Thursday for Bush to take out 5,000 US troops from Iraq before Christmas Day. Although Warner protrayed the move as symbolic,, insofar as it would signal […]

Iraq

Napoleon, Bush & the Republic Militant

Juan Cole

My piece on “Pitching the Imperial Republic,” comparing Napoleon’s fiasco in Egypt to Bush’s quagmire in Iraq (since he likes historical analogies) is now available at Tomdispatch.com. Please link back to Tom’s site if you reference it.

Iraq

Military Coup Planned for Iraq?

Juan Cole

A rumor is circulating among well-connected and formerly high-level Iraqi bureaucrats in exile in places like Damascus that a military coup is being prepared for Iraq. I received the following from a reliable, knowledgeable contact. There is no certitude that this plan can or will be implemented. That it is being discussed at high levels […]

Iraq

Hillary develops Foot in Mouth Disease on Dumping al-Maliki

Juan Cole

PM Nuri al-Maliki responded to Senator Carl Levin’s (D-Michigan) call for him to be unseated, and Bush’s failure to support him on Tuesday by unwisely getting hot under the collar and saying he can find other friends in the world to support his endeavor. I predicted that Levin’s unwise and inappropriate comment (in a conference […]

Iraq

Bush, Sistani back off Support for al-Maliki; Iraq, Syria, seek Energy Cooperation

Juan Cole

When pressed on the future of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Bush declined to back him as forcefully as in the past. He said it was up to the Iraqis to decide. I don’t think things look good for al-Maliki. Al-Quds al-`Arabi [pdf] reports in Arabic that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani is “disgusted” with the al-Maliki […]

Iraq

al-Hayat: al-Duri Seeks Political Role, Turns on Salafis

Juan Cole

Al-Hayat [Life] reports in Arabic that the Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri wing of the Baath Party (one of four major Baath factions) has decided to break with the Salafi Jihadis (‘al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia’) and to open negotiations with the Iraqi government and with the American military. So said Baath figure Wisam al-Jash`ami in a telephone interview. […]

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