Juan Cole

If you put your politicians up for sale, as the US does (alone in this among industrialized democracies), then someone will buy them--and it won’t be you; you can’t afford them. ↗

— Juan Cole

#money #politicians #politics #super-pacs #united-states

Administering another country is always a very tricky proposition. ↗

— Juan Cole

#always #another #country #proposition #tricky

An occupying power has no right to make significant alterations in the character of the occupied society, to change the laws all around, without a strong security reason and so forth. ↗

— Juan Cole

#change #character #forth #laws #make

For instance, I was a little surprised that the Shiites didn't rise up against Saddam and the Baath party across most of the country when the Americans moved in March and April of 2003. ↗

— Juan Cole

#against #april #country #i #instance

I also argued before the war that the administration was underestimating Arab nationalism and Iraqi nationalism, that it was not going to be as easy to rule Iraq as they thought. ↗

— Juan Cole

#also #arab #argued #before #easy

I argued that the Bush administration, and the Coalition officials more recently, didn't understand Iraqi society. They thought it was a blank slate, that they could use Iraqis as guinea pigs. ↗

— Juan Cole

#argued #blank #blank slate #bush #bush administration

I don't accept the argument of people like David Horowitz that the government should impose some sort of predetermined political balance on academic research. ↗

— Juan Cole

#accept #argument #balance #david #government

I speak Urdu quite a lot, too, and I read a lot of Persian. ↗

— Juan Cole

#lot #persian #quite #read #speak

I think it's really unfortunate that academics have been sidelined in most important policy debates. ↗

— Juan Cole

#been #debates #i #i think #important

It's not proper for a professor to go before a class and promote one party or another. That's not academic scholarship. ↗

— Juan Cole

#another #before #class #go #party