The apology, coming from powerful institutions like the White House or a major metropolitan daily, is an art form. The art lies in crafting a mea culpa that confesses just enough to sound sincere, but without cutting so deeply as to call the institution’s motives into question. In the case of corporate news media, Rule No. 1 goes like this: Admit to being duped by your sources if you must, or even to editorial incompetence. But never admit to having made a willful, selective use of the evidence in front of you. In other words, that the institution itself must change. The editors of the New York Times made a dramatic apology on May 26.

The US occupation of Iraq is passing through a critical stage that may very well decide its fate. The November attack on Fallujah was intended to cripple the Iraqi resistance enough to clear the way for the January 30 elections. Instead it may have inflamed the insurgency and alienated the Sunni population, casting doubt on the legitimacy of any new Iraqi government. Who is the resistance and can it be overcome? What is the state of the occupation going into the elections and can a legitimate government be created under foreign occupation? Rami El-Amine asked several commentators for their views.

Juan Cole is professor of modern Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the University of Michigan and author of Sacred Space and Holy War.

The US elections revealed the unfortunate fact that a large section of the American population does not appreciate the profound mess created by the Bush administration in Iraq. Fresh figures of US casualties for November easily matched the record set last April (2003) when occupation forces besieged Najaf and Falluja. And December looks just as grim - the first weekend alone harvested 80 Iraqi deaths, mostly national guardsmen or police, who are being slaughtered by the dozens at the hands of the resistance. No doubt, the road to the Iraqi elections set for the end of January will be paved with blood. Much of the American public's ignorance is probably due to media manipulation or Pentagon spin.

Hassan Juma’a Awad, the President of the General Union of Oil Employees (GUOE) in Basra, Southern Iraq, visited Britain in February as a guest of U.K.-based Iraq Occupation Focus. James O’Nions spoke to him.

No anti-war activist can be unaware of the importance of oil to Iraq’s economy — and to its occupiers. No sooner had the occupation begun than oil workers started forming unions. The General Union of Oil Employees (GUOE), formed by federating a number of oil sector unions, is politically independent and represents approximately 23,000 workers. The GUOE is built from the grassroots and is not linked to any of the political parties involved in running the occupation.