Cole Comfort
University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole is among the more prominent professors in his field, Middle East history. In fact, he's the president-elect of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), the umbrella professional group for scholars working in that area.
The field of Middle East studies is among the most politicized academic endeavors, rivaling literature and American Studies for it's left-wing, anti-American, anti-Israeli orthodoxy. The best book on the problems facing the field is Martin Kramer, whose book, Ivory Towers on Sand, is must-reading for those interested in the ideological problems that plague this crucial field.
Cole is no stranger to controversy, and lately he's come to the attention of the blogosphere less through his daily anti-American rants on his own blog than on his vicious, paranoid attack on Iraqi bloggers. Sunday he insinuates that the Fadhil brothers, who run the blog Iraq the Model, are tools of a neoconservative (read Jewish) conspiracy.
Glenn Reynolds, Jeff Jarvis, Michael Totten, and the Fadhil brothers are only some of the bloggers who're on Cole's case, and I'd like to associate myself with their comments. Their posts on Cole should be read in their entirity, as collectively they cover the case extremely well.
The gist of the story: Cole charges (but gives no evidence) that many blogs in the U.S., and Iraq the Model in Bagdhad, are tools of a neocon conspiracy. They're using a method called "astroturfing," wherein ostensibly grassroots campaigns turn out to be schemes by unseen forces to manipulate public debate and thought on crucial issues. This, in effect, is what he charges Iraq the Model with doing. Why? Because they're pro-American and believe in Iraqi democracy. For the incoming president of MESA, that's reason enough to slim them at every opportunity.
Another excellent source on Cole and his confreres is the ubiquitous (and much-maligned) Daniel Pipes, whose Middle East Forum is dedicated to combating precisely the kind of distorted "scholarship" that men such as Cole spew forth. MEF also runs Campus Watch, which keeps a close eye on efforts by radical, anti-American professors to bully students and colleagues, and distort the history of the region and its people. Pipes is a force of nature in the field of Middle East studies, and readers who enjoy this blog might profit from signing up for his mailing list, through which they can stay informed on developments in the field.
I recently had occasion to sum up Juan Cole's blog succinctly (Cole's links for August aren't working properly, so you'll have to search for terms within months in his archives):
“The US military looks more like the Israeli every day. And, doesn't anyone besides me mind our military bombing a country that we occupy [Iraq]? How is that not a contraventions [sic] of the Geneva Conventions?” Informed Comment, (8/14/04)
Arrogance, apologias for terrorists, Park Avenue anti-Semitism, and a penchant for tainted sources and conspiracy theories color Informed Comment, the blog of University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole. From the pen of lesser-known writers, the above-quoted claim would have little impact on scholarly or popular discourse on the Middle East or U.S. foreign policy. Yet Mr. Cole’s perch – as editor of the International Journal of Middle East Studies, PBS and NPR commentator, and (should he win the upcoming election) president of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) – ensures a wide audience.
Perusing Informed Comment, one searches in vain for a broad-minded view of the Middle East. Yet Mr. Cole is relentlessly negative in his assessment of Iraq. The result is less a running commentary on the region’s history than an uncomfortably close (yet revealing) encounter with the mind of an all-too-typical practitioner of the academic faith. To explain anti-Americanism among Arabs, Mr. Cole blames America first, charging that “Bush's unprovoked attack on Iraq . . . . The brutal, selfish, exploitative occupation, the vicious siege of Fallujah” turned them against us. It has nothing to do with our pluralism, however, since “Middle Easterners have even more faith in democracy than do Americans.” Terrorists blew up a Mosul church only because the President’s evangelical supporters are out to “convert the Muslims to Christianity,” according to Al-Hayat. (8/03/04) For many academics, it’s always the evangelicals.
Unless it’s the Jews, who in Mr. Cole’s view control America and deserve to be punished: “The Presbyterian Church's stance against companies that contribute to suffering in Israel and Palestine is among the most admirable and hopeful signs I've seen in American civil society for some time.” (8/06/04) Why? Because: “[T]he conditions under which the Palestinians live in the West Bank are a form of dictatorship (they haven't voted for their Israeli military rulers). Why not invade the West Bank and liberate the Palestinians?” (9/21/04)
And they’re conspiracy-minded, as Lawrence Franklin’s non-case proves: “[I]f you could work up a presidential directive on Iran that, e.g., threatened military action against the Iranian nuclear facilities at Bushehr, and could put it about the Pentagon that AIPAC and the Israelis had signed off on it, you might be able to make a US air attack on Bushehr happen. When the final draft was presented to Bush for his signature, Karl Rove . . . could be assured that Bush would get brownie points (big money and votes) from AIPAC if he signed.” (8/31/04)
Juan Cole’s Informed Comment, colored by arrogant partisan attacks and personal biases, exemplifies the decline of Middle East studies. Irresponsible in its charges, credulous of its sources, and soaked in the jejune rhetoric of the anti-American academic left, it’s a poor substitute for fair and rigorous scholarship.
Update: Chrenkoff is on the case of Cole, and he sees a pattern in the way elite white liberals treat other ethnic who stray from liberal orthodoxy. Blacks (Condoleezza Rice, Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, et al.), Poles during the Solidarity uprising (they couldn't possibly want to be like us), and now pro-democracy Arabs. Western lefties "loathe their own society so much that they can't understand how other people around the world might actually like it." Read his entire post.
| Dec. 14, 2004 | 9:39 AM