Middle East

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

The USG Open Source Center rounds up Reactions of Syrian Newspapers to the visit to Damascus of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Syrian Papers Expect Al-Maliki’s Visit To ‘Reflect Positively’ on RegionSyria — OSC SummaryTuesday, August 21, 2007 Syrian newspapers on 21 August note the importance of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s visit to Syria and […]

Reuters reports that the governor of Muthanna province, Mohammed Ali al-Hassani, was assassinated on Monday by a roadside bomb. This killing was the second in recent days of a provincial governor from the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC). In both Muthanna and Qadisiya, the site of the other assassination, the Badr Corps paramilitary of SIIC […]

The NYT reports that the US military is setting up neighborhood militias in Sunni Arab areas, called “Guardians,” to patrol and curb Salafi Jihadi gangs. Two questions come to mind. Why is it that those hundreds of thousands of Iraqi police cannot do this job (it is after all their job)? And, will the Sunni […]

In response to the NYT op-ed by specialists and sergeants on Sunday, Jerry Eagan writes with his own experiences: Dr. Cole. In July, 1967, while back home in Indiana on “convalescent leave” from an Army hospital, I wrote a similar, albeit, shorter letter to my hometown newspaper. As these men are, I was a “grunt,” […]

As Bill Maher has quipped, we have had a balanced set of commentaries on the Iraq War on television news. We have heard from the generals and the retired generals. Today at the NYT we hear from some specialists and sergeants. In a thoughtful, analytically precise, and informed essay, they lament the pie in the […]