This should have appeal to more then just my liberal visitors as he points out a number of details that are in conflict with much of our thinking. So I am afraid you are going to have to open your mind to read it. Sorry.
Like here where Professor Cole identifies why we should not leave Iraq hastily.
8. Iraq is already in a civil war, so it does not matter if the US simply withdraws precipitately, since the situation is as bad as it can get. No, it isn't. During the course of the guerrilla war, the daily number of dead has fluctuated, between about 20 and about 60. But in a real civil war, it could easily be 10 times that. Some estimates of the number of Afghans killed during their long set of civil wars put the number at 2.5 million, along with 5 million displaced abroad and more millions displaced internally. Iraq is Malibu Beach compared to Afghanistan in its darkest hours. The US has a responsibility to get out of Iraq responsibly and to not allow it to fall into that kind of genocidal civil conflict.
Admittedly that is a good point. I am just concerned whether or not this administratin will be able to recognize when that right time becomes apparent.
Here, this quote is more my speed.
10. The Bush administration wanted free elections in Iraq. This allegation is simply not true, as I and others pointed out last January. I said then, and it is still true:
' Moreover, as Swopa rightly reminds us all, the Bush administration opposed one-person, one-vote elections of this sort. First they were going to turn Iraq over to Chalabi within six months. Then Bremer was going to be MacArthur in Baghdad for years. Then on November 15, 2003, Bremer announced a plan to have council-based elections in May of 2004. The US and the UK had somehow massaged into being provincial and municipal governing councils, the members of which were pro-American. Bremer was going to restrict the electorate to this small, elite group.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani immediately gave a fatwa denouncing this plan and demanding free elections mandated by a UN Security Council resolution. Bush was reportedly "extremely offended" at these two demands and opposed Sistani. Bremer got his appointed Interim Governing Council to go along in fighting Sistani. Sistani then brought thousands of protesters into the streets in January of 2004, demanding free elections. Soon thereafter, Bush caved and gave the ayatollah everything he demanded. Except that he was apparently afraid that open, non-manipulated elections in Iraq might become a factor in the US presidential campaign, so he got the elections postponed to January 2005. This enormous delay allowed the country to fall into much worse chaos, and Sistani is still bitter that the Americans didn't hold the elections last May. The US objected that they couldn't use UN food ration cards for registration, as Sistani suggested. But in the end that is exactly what they did. '
See? Now that is some good blogging. Anyhow it has a little something for everyone.
Juan Cole? The professor who sees Zionist conspiracies under every bed? The professor who's never actually been to Iraq, but tried to paint as CIA plants actual Iraqis who contradicted his 'informed comment?' The professor who lets his rabid bigotry regularly distort his commentary into absurdity? That professor? Please. I've read him before, all too many times.
ReplyDeleteWard Churchill's a professor, too.
Have a little Professor Hanson instead.
Even Juan Cole gets something right once in a while, achillea - and he is quite right about not withdrawing - and about Iraq not being in a real civil war, and so forth.
ReplyDeleteHe's mostly right about the elections, too - though I think he's wrong about the motives. But neither of us can read Bush's mind, and unlike Mr. Cole, I won't pretend to have done so.
I'm with achillea. Cole's a notoriously partisan crackpot who represents a lot of what's *wrong* with academia today. He's exhibit A in the list of people who's hatred of Bush has completely blinded them beyond all reason. (He's also notorious for being wrong 90% of the time, and quietly taking down from his blog things he was wrong about, then never mentioning them again.)
ReplyDelete- AJ
PS Here's something kind of interesting. After being named one of the eight most biased professors in the U.S., Cole had this to say:
"The implication of the so-called "Campus Watch" website, that either I am disloyal or that I am anti-Israel, or, worse, a bigot, is a monstrous lie. The lie is being propagated as part of a more general campaign to control scholarly discourse on Middle East studies," Cole said. "This odious attempt to smear me and monitor me is no more to me than a loud fart by a boor in Philadelphia."
Now, set aside for a moment the question of whether Cole deserves to be on the list. Is this really the response you'd expect from a supposedly distinguished university professor?
I posted the article with no previous knowledge of Juan Cole. I can neither defend the man nor condemn him.
ReplyDeleteI posted it as a stand alone article which I thought was somewhat more moderate then most of my links. I still find it provocative.
Boy all in a snit about Juan Cole...geez...bigotry ? conspiracy theorist? and yes, gryphen he usually gives a fairly equitable presentation and analysis, I wonder if they are even talking about the same Juan...( also I think he has been to Iraq...)
ReplyDeleteIf they don't like Juan , I wonder if they have read Dar Jamil....or Baghdad Burning ( Reality in Iraq)
whoa...rough little bunch...takes nothing to get their panties in a twist...