Can a Shiite Cleric Pull Iraq Out of the Sectarian Trap?
The Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr at a demonstration in April against the bombings of Syria by Britain, France and the United States. CreditHaidar Hamdani/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images [Published...
View ArticleCan Militant Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr Reform Iraq?
[Read the full report at The Century Foundation.] In the fifteen years since the American invasion toppled Saddam Hussein from power, Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has distinguished himself from other...
View ArticleIraq after Kurdistan and Mosul
With Kurdistan’s independence referendum ending in fiasco, and Mosul recaptured from ISIS, what’s next for Iraq? Arguably, Iraq is the biggest success story right now in the Arab world. In the latest...
View ArticleISIS was a symptom. State collapse is the disease
An Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Services member prays in the Old City of Mosul on July during an ongoing offensive to retake the city from Islamic State group fighters. FADEL SENNA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES...
View ArticleOnly Humane Governance Can Erase Legacy of ISIS
[Published at The Century Foundation.] This summer, the Islamic State will probably lose its capitals in Syria and Iraq, and possibly, any hope of surviving as a traditional territorial state. For...
View ArticleThe surprising appeal of ISIS
THE INTERNATIONALIST It’s murderous, intolerant, and dangerous. But the group offers Sunnis something rare in the Middle East: a chance to feel like a citizen. JUNE 29, 2014 REUTERS An ISIS fighter in...
View ArticleCambanis vs. Cohen on Bloggingheads
My first foray onto Bloggingheads TV, with fellow TCF fellow Michael Cohen. Michael thinks COIN is “claptrap”; I think it was a decent idea taken too far. We’re both starting our discussion with a read...
View ArticleKaplan and COIN: The Tweets
Fred Kaplan graciously took part in a Twitter conversation about his book, The Insurgents. He explained his concerns that the military remains confused about its mission, and expounded on his view that...
View ArticleHow We Fight
Fred Kaplan’s Insurgents on David Petraeus The American occupation of Iraq in its early years was a swamp of incompetence and self-delusion. The tales of hubris and reality-denial have already passed...
View ArticleNPR: Sadrists follow Hezbollah
Kelly McEvers has a story on NPR about Moqtada Sadr’s methods; he seems to be borrowing directly from Hezbollah’s playbook, and I discuss in an interview with Kelly all the potential for power and...
View ArticleFrom the Archives
I was cleaning out my office ahead of the New Year, and I found the press badge that the US military issued me in Kuwait in 2003. Just a few weeks before the invasion of Iraq, the military press office...
View ArticleLong Form Best of 2010
I’m quite honored to find my memoir of the Iraq invasion in At Length on the top 20 list for this year at longform.org. They’ve chosen quite a line-up of pieces, including a bunch I have not yet read...
View ArticleLarry Kaplow on Iraq
One of my favorite voices on Iraq is Larry Kaplow, the veteran reporter who to my knowledge spent more time in Baghdad than any other Western reporter. He has weighed in today with the kind of droll...
View ArticleIraq’s Narrative
What is the long arc of America’s involvement in Iraq? For two very different approaches to this question, take a look at the a Defense Department official’s description of the blueprint for Iraq and...
View ArticleThe Decisive Ones
At Length Magazine has just published a short memoir I wrote of the early days of the Iraq invasion. You can find it under prose on the homepage, or you can click here to link directly to the piece....
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