I'm quite a softy, yes. I have a blank spot with respect to visual art, but I have perhaps a compensating hypersensitivity to poetry and music.

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• Juan Cole:

  Administering another country is always a very tricky proposition.

• Juan Cole:

  I argued that the Bush administration, and the Coalition officials more recently, didn't understand

• Juan Cole:

  Did you know that they introduced the 15 percent flat tax on individual and corporate income in Ira

• Juan Cole:

  An occupying power has no right to make significant alterations in the character of the occupied so

• Juan Cole:

  Take the decision in early March to arrest Muqtada al-Sadr. It was made apparently without knowledg

• Juan Cole:

  I believe that the American administration of Iraq has been arrogant, has pursued policies that are

• Juan Cole:

  I also argued before the war that the administration was underestimating Arab nationalism and Iraqi

• Juan Cole:

  For instance, I was a little surprised that the Shiites didn't rise up against Saddam and the Baath

• Juan Cole:

  My main expertise is in the past, but if I have to extrapolate into the future, I would say: no goo

• Juan Cole:

  I lived in the Muslim world for 10 years.