Recently TPMtv sat down (virtually) with Juan Cole, who you probably know as the author of his blog Informed Comment. (He's also a professor of modern Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the University of Michigan, and writer of the new book Napoleon's Egypt).

We've heard a lot over the last ten days about just what's happening in Iraq. But since most of us have never been there, don't speak the languages and don't even know much about the groups fighting, we wanted to get Cole's read on a series of questions.

What's really going on in al Anbar province (which the administration persistently cites as a glimmering example of the success of the surge), whether the Sunnis are ready to concede national reconciliation, and what might happen if and when we ever leave Iraq ...