Category
- Africa (96)
- Asia (528)
- Authoritarianism (99)
- Cats (1)
- Culture (333)
- Dehydration (1)
- Democracy (152)
- Dissent (259)
- Economy (431)
- Education (50)
- Elderly (2)
- Energy (729)
- Environment (850)
- Europe (467)
- Featured (1,369)
- fiction (5)
- Food (5)
- Guns (8)
- History (142)
- Human Rights (802)
- Immigration (13)
- International (467)
- Islamophobia (193)
- Juan Cole (264)
- Latin America (28)
- Latinos (3)
- leisure (21)
- media (278)
- Middle East (4,781)
- Arab World (3,517)
- Iran (416)
- Israel (575)
- Israel/ Palestine (1,096)
- Israel/Palestine (8)
- Kurds (173)
- Turkey (282)
- military (101)
- Modernism (1)
- nationalism (86)
- NATO (3)
- Natural Disasters (7)
- nuclear weapons (22)
- Peace (51)
- Persian mythology (1)
- Popular Culture (22)
- Poverty (3)
- privacy (19)
- racism (181)
- religion (584)
- Rights (107)
- Romance (1)
- science (75)
- Secular (West) (7)
- Secularism (18)
- South Pacific (1)
- Spirituality (18)
- Statelessness (14)
- Surveillance (239)
- Terrorism (940)
- Tolerance (2)
- Uncategorized (7,998)
- United Nations (54)
- Urbanization (2)
- US Foreign Policy (388)
- US politics (2,031)
- Anti-War Movement (4)
- Campaign Finance (21)
- Censors (18)
- Central Intelligence Agency (49)
- Civil Rights (74)
- Constitution (205)
- Democratic Party (406)
- Domestic Terrorism (14)
- Drone Warfare (17)
- Espionage (99)
- Ethnicities (183)
- Far Right (106)
- FBI (26)
- Foreign Policy (154)
- Gay Rights (11)
- Guns (39)
- Immigration (90)
- Israel Lobbies (58)
- Militarization (180)
- National Security State (306)
- Native Americans (12)
- Nuclear arsenal (5)
- penitentiaries (5)
- Pentagon (145)
- Police (17)
- prison reform (1)
- Reproductive Choice (7)
- Republican Party (1,085)
- Supreme Court (17)
- Voter suppression (14)
- Whistleblowers (3)
- Xenophobia (4)
- Veterans (15)
- Voting Rights (4)
- War (170)
- Western Religion (295)
- White Supremacists (20)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (171)
- workers (99)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (94)
Archives: March 2008
Mahdi Army Unsubdued; Iran asks for End to Fighting
Iraqi Police surrendering to the Mahdi Army in Baghdad. Courtesy AFP via al-Hayat.Ned Parker of the LAT does a good job in clarifying the rivalry between the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq…Police Mutiny, Refuse to attack Sadrists; Clashes continue in Basra; Sadrists open New fronts throughout Shiite South
Mahdi Army Militiamen, courtesy Al-Zaman of Baghdad.Another US soldier was killed in Baghdad on Friday.The Times of Baghdad reports in Arabic that clashes continued on Friday between Iraqi government forces and the…Mahdi Army Stands Firm in its Basra Neighborhoods; Demonstrations in Baghdad against al-Maliki
People are asking me the significance of the fighting going on in Basra and elsewhere. My reading is that the US faced a dilemma in Iraq. It needed to have new provincial…Dozens Dead in Basra Clashes; Mahdi Army Occupies Kut
There was heavy fighting Wednesday and Thursday morning in the Jumhuriya district of the southern oil port of Basra. That is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia of Muqtada al-Sadr, now…Cole on Lehrer News Hour
I'll be on the Lehrer News Hour, PBS, Wednesday evening March 26.Sadrists clash with Iraqi, US forces in Basra; Curfews in Shiite cities
The truce between the Mahdi Army and the US military has broken down, putting a question mark over the future of the 'surge'. Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that members of the Islamic…Frontline on the Iraq War
Don't miss part II of Frontline's (PBS) special on the Iraq War tonight.Part I, aired last night, is or will be available in streaming video, as will the whole thing.Sadrists’ Civil Disobedience Campaign
On Tuesday morning, major clashes broke out between government security forces and local Basra militias (including the Mahdi Army) that sent black smoke billowing in the air above the oil port. A…
Problems in Firefox with Text Blanked Out
Some readers have complained that occasionally postings are partially obscured when viewed with the Firefox browser. I haven't seen this effect in Firefox myself, so I assume it is a setting problem.…
4,000 US Troops Dead; Nearly 60 Dead in Iraq Attacks; Sadrists Threaten General Strike
All hell broke loose again in Iraq on Sunday, with political violence killing nearly 60 persons according to official statistics. A roadside bomb killed 4 US troops, bringing the total dead in…Unger: The Iraq War was a Conspiracy
Craig Unger's email, part of an interchange on a private discussion group, is reprinted here with permission:[A critic, let us call him X, objected] to Jim Lobe's suggestion that Iraqi WMDs and…Pope Calls for Christian-Muslim Good Will in Memory of Slain Iraqi Archbishop; 4 US Troops Killed
This Easter is an especially sad one for Iraq's Chaldean Christians. Their archbishop was kidnapped and held for ransom, then killed by guerrillas. His captors had demanded that the Christians support demands…Jihadi Movement Calls For Efforts To Prevent Iran From ‘Interfering’ in Iraqi Affairs
The USG Open Source Center translates an Arab nationalist call to the southern Shiite province of Maysan, which is ruled by the Sadr Movement of Muqtada al-Sadr, to block Iranian influence. In…Militia Blues
A US soldier was killed and four wounded by rocket fire south of Baghdad.Courtesy ABC NewsThe Guardian video does a report, streamed below, on the prospect that some of the 80,000 members…
Bush Lies about Iran on Now-Ruz
On Thursday, Bush lied about Iran again: "President Bush said the Iranian government has "declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to destroy people . . ." The Iranian leaders have…"Al-Qaeda" Deploys Widows as Suicide Bombers in Iraq: Fayyad
courtesy al-Sharq al-AwsatThe misery of the some 2 million widows in Iraq has security implications. Ma'd Fayyad reports in Arabic that fundamentalist Sunni guerrillas in Iraq are increasingly deploying widows as suicide…Iraqi TV Channels Carry Reactions to Fifth War Anniversary
The USG Open Source Center translates Iraqi television reactions to the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of IraqIraqi TV Channels Carry Reactions to Fifth War AnniversaryIraq -- OSC SummaryThursday, March 20,…Iran: Danger and Opportunity; Polk Guest Op-Ed
William R. Polk writes: Cassandra and Yogi Berra are an unlikely pair, but I hear both of their voices today. Cassandra, like some of us, was cursed to be always disbelieved as…The Arab Conscience and the 5th Anniversary of the Iraq War
The below is part of an anti-war "opera" sung by the most famous of the Arab videoclip stars (Nancy Ajram and Cheb Khalid are featured here). The whole is very long. The…Egyptian Politics
For my class, reports on Mubarak's Egypt:Journeyman pictures clip on the Muslim Brotherhood and Kefaya in Egypt, 2005 Journeyman Pictures clip on Islamic Jihad and other oppositional groups in Egypt.Aljazeera: Inside Story,…5 Years, 5 Lies: Cole in Salon
My fortnightly column for Salon.com is now up, commemorating the 5th anniversary of Bush's invasion of Iraq:"Five years of Iraq lies:" How President Bush and his advisors have spent each year of…Obama, Race and the Dynamism of America
I listened to Senator Barack Obama's speech on race issues as a resident of the Detroit area. Barack Obama was talking about something very personal to him, about being rooted in family…Obama: "A More Perfect Union"
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama"A More Perfect Union"Constitution CenterPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaFirst the video, then the text of the speech, below:"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."Two hundred and twenty…
52 Killed in Karbala Bombing; Bombing in Karrada Wounds 8; Cheney and McCain in Baghdad
A massive bomb in the Shiite holy city of Karbala killed 52 persons and wounded 75 on Monday according to AFP. Shiites' feelings are raw over the attack, threatening further civil war…Missile Strikes Kill 20 In Pakistan; Parliament Convenes amid Tensions with Musharraf; 110 Arrested in Connection with Bombing of FBI Agents
The Pakistani parliament convened on Monday for the first time since the February 18 elections, with the Pakistan People's Party and the Muslim League-N and their allies having a two-thirds majority in…Cole and Clemons on the Middle East: Bloggingheads
See my discussion at bloggingheads.tv of contemporary Middle East issues with Steve Clemons of the Washington Note blog.US Soldier Killed; US Second to Eurozone;
I can still remember, as a child, the other children on the playground boasting that the US was the greatest country in the world, and the pride we all took from that.…
Reflections on Petraeus’s Comments On lack of Political Progress
General David Petraeus is quoted in WaPo as saying that no one, American or Iraqi, thinks that there has been sufficient political progress in light of the reduction of civilian deaths since…Bomber Kills 18, Wounds 64; Archbishop Found Dead; Mahdi Army at Kut Shells US Base
A suicide bomber in a BMW killed 18 Iraqis in Baghdad on Thursday and wounded 64.With regard to yet another tragedy on Thursday, The Guardian writes,' Iraq's unending violence claimed one of…Iraq: $3 Trillion War
Aljazeera English on the $3 Trillion War in Iraq, as argued by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and his co-author Linda J. Bilmes. Note to US corporate media: Notice how the…15 US Troops Killed Since Sunday; McCain more Hawkish than Bush
Guerrillas fired rockets at a US base south of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 3 US soldiers and wounding 2. An Iraqi civilian was also wounded.A US soldier was killed and another wounded…Wave of Violence in Iraq Kills 62; March sees Spike in Violence; Is Fallon Fall Guy for McCain?
AP reports that political violence left 42 dead across Iraq on Tuesday, including the bombing of a bus near Nasiriya in the south. Actually, McClatchy reports 62 dead if you count the…8 US Troops Killed; Bombings in Baghdad, Baladruz, Sulyamaniya; Pentagon: No Saddam-al-Qaeda Ties
Sunni Arab Iraqi guerrillas launched a four-pronged attack on their enemies on Monday.They killed eight US troops in two separate bombings, one in the al-Mansur district of Baghdad and one in the…1799: French Pillage Palestinians
At the Napoleon's Egypt blog, Gen. Berthier describes how the French, having failed to take the fortress at Acre, destroy the city's aqueduct in revenge and then pillage and loot the Palestinian…Guest Editorial: Polk: The Iraq War and the Presidential Election
William R. Polk With all eyes fixed on the forthcoming election, we must consider the issues that will face whomever becomes our next president for these are issues that we – and…Pakistan Coalition Has Two-Thirds Majority: Will seek to Reinstate Dismissed Justices; Confrontation with Musharraf Looms
Pakistan People's Party leader Asaf Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Nawaz Sharif reached a historic accord on Sunday aimed at forming a coalition government. The PPP will lead the government…King’s Bigotry and Obama and the Muslims (Again)
Congressman Steven King of Iowa, who has decided to further disgrace Congress by seeking a fifth term there, delivered himself of the sort of bigotted and ignorant comments about Barack Obama that…