Juan Cole on Iraq: Simpleton Paints by Numbers

I know I promised you my interview with Cindy Sheehan, but Salon.com published another paint-by-numbers article written by Juan Cole and I had to respond. His article was titled: “The war against Iraq's prime minister
Sens. Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin are calling for Nouri al-Maliki's ouster as a way of attacking Bush's Iraq policy. But do they understand the consequences?”
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/08/29/maliki/print.html

My question is: does Salon.com understand the consequences of continuing to publish the uniformed dribble of Prof. Cole?

Here is my letter, written to Salon.com in response to Prof. Cole’s article:

I am an independent journalist who has just returned from spending four weeks in the Middle East: one week in Amman, Jordan checking in with old friends and researching the Iraqi refugee/displaced person crisis; and 3 weeks in northern Iraq, where among other things, I spent time with a group of Iraqis: Sunni, Shiite, Kurds, and at least one Zoastrian. All were working on a 6-week biodiversity survey project spanning northern Iraq. Another such survey occurs in the south at another time of the year. An Iraqi NGO employs these people and has offices in the north, in Baghdad and in Basra. These people are all educated, middle class Iraqis, some of whom had met each other for the first time. They either live in Baghdad, Basra, or northern Iraq.

Over the three weeks time I spent living with these folks, they relaxed enough to speak openly in front of me. All felt high frustration at the US for not handling the occupation appropriately form the beginning. All said that in the beginning they welcomed the US presence and being freed from the horror grip of Saddam Hussein’s regime. The general sentiment among all of them was that the US should remove Prime Minister Mailiky from his position. His ties with Iran and his favoritism of the Shiite (in the eyes of most of the Iraqis I spoke with, both in Iraq and Amman, Jordan) are absolutely not acceptable. (I did explain to them that they would have to remove Maliky themselves by way of democratic process). They also want the US to attack Iran as soon as possible - their reaction to seeing Ahmadinejad and Maliki in Iran holding hands almost tore the roof off of the building.

Just about all said the US should impose a new Prime Minister – Ayad Allawi was a name that constantly came up. But most said Maliky’s replacement didn’t have to necessarily be Allawi but definitely someone like him. That is (in the words of more than one of these Iraqis), “We want someone who will kill the terrorists because they are terrorists, and not just because they are Sunni or Shiite. We don’t make that division.”

As they explained to me in their own words, Iyad Allawi, although Shiite, was Baathist and served under Saddam. He did not differentiate between Sunni and Shiite, and simply killed people who were doing wrong (based on the definition of “wrong” at the time). Indeed, as one Iraqi woman – a refugee living in Amman – told me, “We Iraqis don’t make a distinction between insurgent, Mujahadeen, al Qaeda or terrorist. All who create terror in people’s lives are terrorists. They should be killed.”

Prof. Cole does an amazing job writing articles that weave together chosen sound bites from various Western media reports and put forth his amateurish and spurious conclusions that, in the end, only support his continuing agenda to demonize the US involvement in Iraq. This specific article was so rife with agenda-ized “frames” (à la George Lakoff, who I interviewed in July 2006: http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2006/07/news/index.php), catch-all words and misleading information, that it would have served a better purpose as a humor piece – except that the situation is NOT humorous and deserves more in-depth and objective reporting, to say the least.

For Cole to say that Sen. Warner “doesn’t grasp the role of Iran” and simplistically back that statement up by saying, “Maliki is less close to Iran than his predecessor, Ibrahim Jaafari, was. Warner does not understand the Islamic Call Party or its history as an Iraqi nationalist organization with a Shiite emphasis” is ludicrous. Just what does “less close to Iran” mean Prof. Cole?

While understanding the history of a group or even a country is an important factor in any discussion, the situation on the ground in today’s Iraq is a primodial soup where alliances, definitions and the emergence of groups and their intentions change and realign constantly. One independent journalist who recently ventured to Baghdad told me that the Madhi militia is so fractured that moving from neighborhood to neighborhood was more dangerous than ever because there is no communication between the splinter groups. No communication means no central command.

Indeed, one cannot use the word “Shiite” and act as if it represents all Shiite. I would say the same for the word “Sunni.” Many Sunni and Shiite (and Kurds) bristle at the idea of an Iranian-infused fundamentalist-run Iraq.

Not to mention that a quick look around the souks of the east Kurdistan, Iraq show an implosion of Iranian and Turkish (and Chinese) products into the country. Iraqis take this as a sign of an Iranian invasion they feel is fully supported by Prime Minister Maliky. “His identification documents may say Maliky is Iraqi, but in truth he is an Iranian Shiite,” was a continuing theme I heard.

If Prof. Cole would dare to venture to Iraq and speak with a healthy mixture of Iraqis, he would clearly see that it is not only American Democrats and Republicans who are “bashing” Iraqi Prime Minister Maliky and his government, are desirous of his prompt removal, and want him replaced by “a less sectarian and more unifying prime minister.” Indeed, one has to wonder why Cole, a self-proclaimed expert on the goings on in Iraq, hasn’t once left his academic ivory tower to step foot in a country with issues he feels so comfortable speaking of yet he has no first hand knowledge of.

Really, Juan, I urge you to go and see for yourself. You might actually learn a thing or two. You know, broaden your horizons, have your mind opened, help you see beyond your limited view... Hell, it might even make you a better teacher.

Next up: My interview with Cindy Sheehan