19 January 2008

Cole Contra Mundum!

I had assumed that the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) that al-Hakim leaders were hostile to new provincial elections. The Sadr movement seems to have been spreading politically in recent years, and it might be able to win in a fair election. But the Saudi royal family must have something else in mind.


I'm not entirely sure, Mr. Bones, but we seem to have just been informed (1) that the Baní Sa‘úd have taken over pulling the strings of "Iraq" from the Bushies, and (2) that Muqtadá al-Sadr is his new masters' least favorite subject.

The first point has been rumored elsewhere, by Professor Gause in Foreign Affairs and by an anonymous Mister X known to the bloggist ‘Non-Arab Arab’ . Those two rumors disagree with one another on crucial points about what Riyádh is up to, however, and they both contradict (2), which seems to be a strict monopoly of Prof. Juan Cole, a product unavailable anywhere else.

If one turns out to be right, doubtless it adds to the glory that one was right contra mundum, but . . . -- well,