'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

Why are we in Iraq? (DeWine quotable)

NBC's Meet the (de)Press(ed) today included conservative host Tim Russert interviewing the two candidates for a US Senate Seat in Ohio - a slot until recently thought to be an...

Iraq open thread #9

I am unbelievably busy with things in the real world. Back to blogging when I can. Maybe Thursday evening? Meantime, talk about Iraq here if you want....

US citizens: How to lobby for a troop pullout from Iraq

The Friends Committee on National Legislation's website has a great resource page that tells us the specific lobbying steps we should be taking to push for a speedy (and hopefully...

Probing the withdrawal issue with J. Cole, contd.

I see Juan Cole has blogged today about our debate/discussion Sunday, and he has responded to the complaint I expressed here yesterday when I wrote that I found it "a...

Visser on decentralization etc in Iraq

Reidar Visser's latest (Sept. 17) analysis of the political decentralization issue in Iraq is really worth reading. I don't have time to comment on it here. (I'm just off to...

With J.Cole in Ann Arbor

I'm in Ann Arbor, MI, traveling to Atlanta today. Yesterday Juan Cole and I spoke at an afternoon gathering at the big Unitarian church here. It seemed like a large...

Sistani down, Moqtada aggressive and up?

I read the whole of the important piece of reporting that was in The Sunday Telegraph (London) yesterday about the decline of Ayatollah Sistani's power among Iraq's Shiites. (Hat-tip to...

Tragedies in Iraq-- open thread

I have been appropriately chided that while I've been focusing on Lebanon (and Uganda) I haven't been writing enough about Iraq. The multiple tragedies there have been well covered, of...

'Why Are Western Intellectuals so Enamoured with the Idea of a Fragmented Iraq?'

Our friend the Norwegian expert Reidar Visser is notably not a supporter of the idea of splitting up Iraq. Now, he has an excellent review on the History News Network...

Chuck Hagel: Thinking

I have long been interested in Senator Chuck Hagel, a self-styled “Eisenhower Republican” from Nebraska. Still mulling a run for the Presidency in 2008, Hagel’s latest bout of independent “free...

Iraq: The pro-American order falling apart?

AP's Qassim Abdul-Zahra wrote today that Nouri al-Maliki, the Daawa Party politician whom the Americans installed as PM in Iraq back in April, sharply criticized a U.S.-Iraqi attack Monday on...