Iraqi Bloggers Central

Last Call: After Five Years, IBC Says Goodbye

2009-05-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

Today, May 1, 2009, is the final entry at Iraqi Bloggers Central.

The IBC website will remain standing as it is today, and no further updates will be made to the blogrolls. But feel free to stop by and look around anytime you want.

Below are links to an overview of Iraq and the Iraqi blogosphere for the last six years. In Part Six you will find a bibliography and a summary of the Iraqi bloggers. As I read more books on Iraq, I will update the book list periodically and add necessary links.

On the blogroll to the right, you will find links to ALL of the Iraqi bloggers, both the active and inactive -- bloggers are considered active if they have posted an entry within the last three months.

Jeffrey Schuster / Iraqi Bloggers Central

A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere

Part One. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2003.
Part Two. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2004.
Part Three. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2005.
Part Four. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2006.
Part Five. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2007.
Part Six. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2008-09. Summary of the Iraqi Bloggers

As we did one evening toward the beginning of Iraqi Bloggers Central, I have arranged for a catering service to provide us with lots of great food and -- of course -- there's an open bar. Beer, wine, scotch, vodka -- you name, we got it. Hey, grab a drink, pull up a chair next to one of the many IBC alumni bloggers or commenters and tell us a story. Blogging for five years is a hell of a long time and a lot of work. Today it's time to kick back and celebrate our five years together.

Okay, everyone grab a glass and pour yourself a drink, and let me say a few words.

*stands up*

First, I would like to thank ALL the Iraqi bloggers. One of the greatest pleasures of the Iraqi blogosphere has been its splendid diversity. Over the last six years, the Iraqi blogosphere has truly been a big tent, where Iraqi Christians, Shia and Sunni Muslims, and even atheists could speak their mind. Some Iraqi bloggers concentrated on the political scene, while others focused on what was going on around them, with their friends and family. No one was excluded. Anyone could join.

*raises glass*

To the Iraqi bloggers!

Next, I would like to thank my fantastic, hard-working co-bloggers: CMAR II, Mister Ghost, RhusLancia, and D.C. All of us shared a passion for our small community, the bloggers and commenters of the Iraqi blogosphere.

*raises glass*

To CMAR II, Mister Ghost, RhusLancia, and D.C.!

Of course, I would never forget to thank the hundreds of commenters who have stopped by the IBC comments page and joined me and my co-bloggers as we mixed it up, laughed, harangued each other, goofed off, argued, flamed our opponents, or whatever else we felt like doing that day. There's simply no way I can remember all the names of our regular commenters over the last five years, but here's a quick list:

Louise, Kat in Missouri, Lisa in New York, Lynnette in Minnesota, Dilnareen, Fayrouz, Alan, leap_frog, Bridget, Elie, Muhannad in Oregon (Iraqi Mojo), Michael Cosyns, Sam (Sandmonkey), Kender, Asher Abrams, Tater, Kris from Seattle, Indigo Red, Pamela, Diane, moron99, Um Ayad, CharlesWT, Craig, Scott from Oregon, BK, Kelly, Connie, Charles, Christina from Montana, Tammy, Jason, Maury, Original Jeff, Max Lane, Dougman, Andrea in Minnesota, Paul Edwards, Mayssam, Anand, Brian H, Whisper, madtom, Ladybird, Dave, Rubin, M.H.Z., Joe from New Hampshire, LT Nixon, Gilgamesh X, Exile-Iraqi, and more recently JG, Corey (C.H.), Touta, motown67, and Khalid I.

*raises glass*

To all the great commenters! Prost!

I would also like to thank the MSM news outlets that blogrolled IBC and helped us in our effort to find more readers for the Iraqi bloggers: The New York Times and the New York Times Baghdad Bureau, MSNBC's Worldblog, C-Span, the LA Times' Babylon and Beyond, and McClatchy's Baghdad Observer.

*raises glass*

Even the MSM knows a great blog when they see one! Thanks, fellas!

*raises glass and then drains it*

Okay, we have this hall for the rest of evening. Thanks for coming. Let's party!

*

So long, everyone! Even though, as of tomorrow, I will no longer be a blogger, you just may find me popping up here and there on a comments page, or maybe sitting next to you in a bar somewhere. If you recognize the Psycho Sicko American Himself, please say hello. I'll buy you a drink and we can reminisce about our wild times back in the Iraqi blogosphere.

Jeffrey -- New York

*

FINAL NOTE (2011):

When I first started Iraqi Bloggers Central, Haloscan offered a better service than Blogspot for comments, and it was free, so I switched over to Haloscan. But then, about a year ago, Haloscan was bought by Echo. Echo wanted monthly payments to maintain the commenting function. They also made it almost impossible to export archived comments from Haloscan/Echo back into the commenting service offered by Blogger. I waited for over half a year, thinking someone might come up with an easy way to export the old comments, but no one did. Those who tried were frustrated by all of the obstacles that were put in the way to move comments. Eventually, I decided to discontinue the Echo commenting service. Unfortunately, that means we lost five years of Haloscan comments at Iraqi Bloggers Central. I’m sure there are many other bloggers out there who had the same experience. My feeling is that Echo made it very difficult to export comments back to Blogger as a kind of extortion scheme (join Echo and start paying or lose all of your comments). “You bastards,” as one of the tykes of South Park would say.

My apologies to all of the regular commenters who enjoyed stopping by and checking old entries to revisit our debates. The conversations we had together were the stimulus that kept me running IBC for so long.

*

A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2008-09

2009-04-30T09:16:00.001-07:00

Al-Mutanabbi Street, December, 2008.
Year in Review: 2008

From the time of the destruction of the Golden Mosque in February, 2006, to the middle of 2007, when the surge led by General Petraeus began to successfully reduce violence around the country, Iraq's future hung in the balance, on the brink of an all-out sectarian war. In 2008, thanks to the relative calm that had been granted to the Iraqis and the Americans working with them, Iraq began to rebuild. The al-Sarafiyah Bridge, which had been destroyed a year earlier by a suicide car-bomber, reopened on May 27, 2008. On November 11, 2008, the Imams Bridge reopened, where three years earlier hundreds of Shia pilgrims had died. And on December 18, 2008, al-Mutanabbi Street, the ancient booksellers' row where twenty-six people had been killed by a car bomb, was once again open for business.

From 2003 to 2006, each Ramadan had seen an increase in Iraqi fatalities; in 2007, and then again in 2008, Ramadan, while not free from insurgent activity, was calm compared to the previous years. In Baghdad, with the increased security, many shops and restaurants reopened for business, and some of the former nightlife returned to the capital. Also, in 2008, some of the Iraqis who had left the country during 2006 and 2007 were now beginning to return.

In the spring of 2008, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki decided to send the Iraqi military to Basra to rout of the Sadrist factions there. Although the beginning of the operation was inauspicious, the Iraqi military soon brought their training to bear on the Jaish al Mahdi and Muqtada al-Sadr was forced to stand down. Muqtada al-Sadr is currently in Qom, Iran.

On November 16, 2008, a new Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) was approved by the Iraq Cabinet and then signed on the following day, allowing the US forces three more years to stay in Iraq. What will happen over the next three years in Iraq, no one knows. Al Qaeda in Iraq is still capable of brutally murdering Iraqi citizens. And the fundamental question of whether the majority of Iraqis will join and support a representative system of government remains open. But, in 2009, like 2005, the people of Iraq will have more chances to vote. In 2009, they will participate in provincial elections in January and then national elections in December.

Year in Review: 2009

On January 7, 2009, an estimated two million Shia pilgrims walked through the Iraqi city of Karbala to celebrate Ashura, which had been forbidden under Saddam Hussein's rule. In contrast to the violence of 2004, this year's celebration was peaceful, with Shiites from around the region coming to Karbala to take part in the most important day of their faith.

On January 31, 2009, Iraqis voted in provincial (or governate) elections. In contrast to the provincial elections in 2005, this time there were no boycotts, another measure of political improvement and engagement in the process of representative governance.

*

New Iraqi Bloggers in 2008-09:

Baghdadentist -- January, 2008.
Iraqi Translator -- March, 2008.
Sam (Interps Life) -- April, 2008.
Touta -- October, 2008.
Violet -- August, 2008.

Khalid Ibrahim (Iraq Blog Updates) -- April, 2009.

For long-time observers of the Anglophone Iraqi blogosphere, the sharp decline in new bloggers in 2008 prompted much discussion and debate. Why the decline? Was this a temporary or a long-rage trend? Where will the new bloggers come from?

In this tiny 2008 class of new bloggers, Touta stands out as the most engaging, combining the narrow focus of some of the other personal-diary bloggers with occasional commentary on politics and society at large. Sam (Interps Life) and Sami (Iraqi Translator) have described what it's like to work with the Americans as an Iraqi; however, they have not posted recently. Violet is a young woman blogging from Mosul.

This month, Khalid Ibrahim, an Iraqi exile living in Dublin, started a new blog along the lines of Iraq Blog Count and Iraqi Bloggers Central to cover the daily blog entries from around the Iraqi blogosphere.

*

Summary of the Iraqi Bloggers (2003-2009):

Over the last six years, in the Anglophone Iraqi blogosphere, there have been around one hundred or so Iraqi bloggers. Currently, around forty of them are actively blogging -- have posted an entry in the last three months -- while the other sixty or so have stopped. Of those who have stopped blogging, some kept a blog for only a few months ("G. in Baghdad") while others posted for several years (Riverbend).

Among the Iraqi bloggers, Kurds (Kurdo, Dilnareen, Hiwa) have been represented along with the majority Arab bloggers. Looking at the religious backgrounds of the Arab bloggers, we find Arab Christians (Fayrouz, Marshmallow 26), Sunni Muslims (the Fadhils, Zeyad Kasim), Shia Muslims (Eye Raki, Mojo), and some with mixed backgrounds (Salam Pax, Raed Jarrar). By age, we find a couple middle-aged Iraqis (Alaa, Faisa Jarrar) and quite a few teenagers (Touta, Sunshine). The majority of Iraqi bloggers, however, appear to be in their twenties and thirties.

While the Iraqi bloggers are a tiny subset of the Iraqi population -- 100 out of around 27 million people -- their views are diverse, often in conflict with each other, on any number of issues central to the past, present, and future of Iraq. Some couldn't wait to watch Saddam's ouster, while others -- like Layla Anwar -- lament the day that Saddam Hussein was forced to vacate Baghdad. On this and a wide range of other issues, the Iraqis bloggers surprise by the range of their responses. While living under Saddam Hussein's police-state tyranny, none of these various opinions, of course, would have been voiced without the fear of imprisonment.

By sex, male Iraqi bloggers are over-represented, with around two-thirds of the Iraqi bloggers male and one-third female. But some of the most distinctive Iraqi bloggers, it should be noted, are women. Riverbend, Chikitita, and Touta quickly come to mind. Layla Anwar, of course, is by far the most impassioned and articulate defender of Saddam Hussein and his regime.

By education, the Iraqi bloggers are not representative of Iraqi society as a whole. In Iraq, around 60 percent of all adults (15 and over) are illiterate. The Iraqi bloggers, in contrast, are not only literate in Arabic but also in English. This reflects most likely their family's class background and the fact that most of the Iraqi bloggers are from the larger urban centers, Baghdad and Mosul being the two most common. Many of the Iraqi bloggers either have college degrees or are currently enrolled in a university, either in Iraq or abroad.

Since 2003, many of the Iraqi bloggers have left the country, some due to security concerns and others for better educational opportunities. Most of those that left ended up moving to the United States: Raed Jarrar (through marriage), Seyad Kasim, Ali, Omar, and Mohammed Fadhil, AYS, Omar Fekeiki, M.H.Z., and Bassam Sebti. Alaa moved to Canada, and Abbas Hawazin relocated to Jordan.

With the relative calm since the success of the surge, some of those who left have started to return to Iraq. Salam Pax and Morbid Smile, for example, both completed graduate degrees -- in England and the United States respectively -- and are now back living in Baghdad. Caesar of Pentra left for a short time but is now back in Iraq finishing his college degree. It remains to be seen how many Iraqi bloggers will return to Iraq.

Over the last two years there has been a decline in the number of new Iraqi bloggers. Whether this is a temporary drop or the beginning of a longer trend, nobody knows at present. For the last six years, however, no one can deny the passion and effort shown by the Iraqi bloggers, starting all the way back with Salam Pax blogging from inside Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and the small community who followed the Iraqi bloggers and joined the thousands of debates, all of us part of a rich discussion that is still going on today.

*

Complete Series:

Part One. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2003.
Part Two. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2004.
Part Three. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2005.
Part Four. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2006.
Part Five. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2007.
Part Six. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2008-09.

*

Selected Entries from IBC:

CP = Check out comments page for that entry.

2008

January 10, 2008. Decline and Fall of the Iraqi Blogosphere? Jeffrey. CP
January 14, 2008. Self-Criticism or Self-Hatred? Jeffrey.
January 20, 2008. Snow Day in Baghdad?! Jeffrey. CP
January 22, 2008. The Lancet Study Farce and Iraq The Model. CMAR II. CP
February 8, 2008. A Couple Questions for Senator Obama. RhusLancia.
February 17, 2008. Let's Look at the Numbers, Okay? Jeffrey.
February 24, 2008. "Wait, that is an American flag." Jeffrey.
February 25, 2008. Nir Rosen's "Fistful of Dollars" Jeffrey. CP
February 27, 2008. This Post Has No Title. CMAR II.
February 29, 2008. Shaggy Daze. Jeffrey.
March 5, 2008. Chikitita's Return. Jeffrey.
March 13, 2008. Kagan versus Rosen on the 'Surge' RhusLancia. CP
March 16, 2008. Why Didn't Saddam Admit That He Worked for the CIA? Jeffrey.
March 18, 2008. Iraq Operation Five Year Roundup. CMAR II. CP
March 26, 2008. Operation Fix Muqty. CMAR II. CP
March 29, 2008. Operation Fix Muqty II. CMAR II.
April 5, 2008. Why Is the Power in Iraq so shoddy after 5 years and 3 1/2 Billion American Dollars. CMAR II.
April 7, 2008. The Fools! They think they can win....by winning! CMAR II.
May 5, 2008. The In T View: Hayder Al-Khoei: I Believe Muqtada al-Sadr Ordered My Father's Murder. Mister Ghost.
May 30, 2008. Racism is in the Eye of the Beholder. RhusLancia.
June 3, 2008. A Silence That Speaks Volumes. Jeffrey.
August 5, 2008. Life Goes On in Iraq. Jeffrey.
August 6, 2008. Re-examining the Victory In Iraq. CMAR II.
December 23, 2008. Merry Christmas, Layla Anwar! Jeffrey.

2009

January 9, 2009. Reading Resolution 1859. Jeffrey.
January 31, 2009. Democracy in the Heart of the Middle East. Jeffrey.
February 8, 2009. Can You Use Your American Express Card in Falluja? Jeffrey.
March 2, 2009. The Bloggers and the Speech. CMAR II.
March 5, 2009. IraqPundit on the Juan Cole and the Kurds. CMAR II.
March 31, 2009. The Personal and the Political. Jeffrey.
April 7, 2009. Greetings from New York City. Jeffrey.
April 10, 2009. Greetings from Iowa! Jeffrey. CP
April 3, 2009. Other Blogospheres, Other Worlds. Jeffrey. CP
April 13, 2009. Greetings from Phoenix, Arizona, USA! RhusLancia.
April 19, 2009. The Defenestration of Comrade Nir Rosen. Jeffrey. CP
April 20, 2009. Greetings from Austin, TX. CMAR II.
April 23, 2009. Get Yer IBC Swag!! RhusLancia.
April 24, 2009. Top 10 Best Iraqi Bloggers of All Time. CMAR II.

*

Selected Articles, Blog Entries, and Documents from 2008-09:

2008

Abbas Hawazin, "Travesty of Human Thinking," Catharsis (website), January 26, 2008.

Al-Rasheed, "The New Iraqi Flag," Great Baghdad (website), January 29, 2008. CP

Nibras Kazimi, "'In Aid of Our Brothers in Gaza,'" Talisman Gate (website), February 18, 2008.

Abbas Hawazin, "The Myth of Sunni-Shia Unity," Catharsis (website), February 23, 2008.

Nir Rosen, "The Myth of the Surge," Rolling Stone (March, 2008).

Jeffrey Schuster, "Nir Rosen's 'Fistful of Dollars,'" Iraqi Bloggers Central (website), February 25, 2008. CP

Michael J. Totten, "Hope for Iraq’s Meanest City," City Journal, Spring 2008, vol. 18, no. 2.

Michael Yon, "As Iraqis stop living in fear, end of Iraq war is at hand," New York Daily News, July 20, 2008.

Iraq Coalition Casualty Count (website), "Hostile/Non-Hostile Deaths: 2003-09." [chart]

Musings on Iraq (website), "How Many Have Died In Iraq And By What Means?," May 1, 2009.

Michael J. Totten, "Iraq at the End of the Surge," Commentary, December 8, 2008.

2009

Omar Fadhil, "New Iraq Emerges from Tyranny and War," Iraq the Model, January 9, 2009.

Sam, "The Story Of Interpreter Shitty Life...," Interpreters Life (website), March 1, 2009.

*

Iraq Bibliography:

Ajami, Fouad. The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq (2006).

Anderson, John Lee. The Fall of Baghdad (2004).

Atkinson, Rick. In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat (2004).

Bellavia, David. House to House: An Epic Memoir of War (2007).

Bogdanos, Matthew. Thieves of Baghdad (2005).

Buzzell, Colby. My War: Killing Time in Iraq (2005).

Campbell, Donovan. Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood (2009).

Cerf, Christopher and Micah L. Sifray. The Iraq War Reader: History, Documents, Opinions (2003).

Chandresekaran, Rajiv. Imperial Life in the Emerald City (2006).

Conroy, Capt. Jason and Ron Martz. Heavy Metal: A Tank Company's Battle to Baghdad (2005).

Coopman, John. McCoy's Marines: Darkside to Baghdad (2005).

Fick, Nathaniel. One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine (2005).

Garrels, Anne. Naked in Baghdad: The Iraq War as Seen by NPR's Correspondent (2003).

Gilbertson, Ashley. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War (2007).

Gordon, Michael and Bernard E. Trainor. Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (2006).

Hoyt, Mike and John Palattello (eds.). Reporting Iraq: An Oral History of the War by the Journalists Who Covered It (2007).

Jamail, Dahr. Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq (2007).

Kartorsky, Bill and Timothy Carlson. Embedded: The Media at War (2003).

Keegan, John. The Iraq War (2004).

Kraus, Ian. Elvis is Titanic: Classroom Tales from the Other Iraq (2007).

LeMoine, Ray, Jeff Newmann, and Donovan Webster. Babylon by Bus (2006).

McGeough, Paul. In Baghdad: A Reporter's War (2003).

Murray, Williamson and Robert Scales, The Iraq War: A Military History (2003).

O'Donnell, Patrick. We Were One (2006).

Packer, George. Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq (2005).

Pax, Salam. Salam Pax: The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi (2003).

Ricks, Thomas E. Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (2006).

Ricks, Thomas E. The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 (2009).

Riverbend, Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq (2005).

Riverbend, Baghdad Burning II: More Girl Blog from Iraq (2006).

Rosen, Nir. In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq (2006).

Shadid, Anthony. Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War (2005).

Smith, Ray L. and Bing West. The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the First Marine Division (2003).

Spinner, Jackie and Jenny Spinner. Tell Them I Didn't Cry (2006).

Trofimov, Yaroslav. Faith at War: A Journey to the Frontlines of Islam, from Baghdad to Timbuktu (2005).

Vincent, Steven. In the Red Zone: A Journey into the Soul of Iraq (2004).

West, Bing. No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle of Fallujah (2005).

West, Bing. The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq (2008).

Wilding, Jo. Don't Shoot the Clowns: Taking a Circus to the Real Iraq (2006)

Wright, Evan. Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War (2004).

Yon, Michael. Moment of Truth in Iraq: How a New 'Greatest Generation' of American Soldiers is Turning Defeat and Disaster into Victory and Hope (2008).

Zinsmeister, Karl. Boots on the Ground: A Month with the 82nd Airborne in the Battle for Iraq (2003).

Zinsmeister, Karl. Dawn Over Baghdad: How the U.S. Military is Using Bullets and Ballots to Remake Iraq (2004).

Zucchino, David. Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad (2004).

*

A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2007

2009-04-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

Gen. David H. Petraeus and Abdul Sattar Abu Risha -- Ramadi, March 17, 2007.
Year in Review: 2007

On January 10, 2007, President George Bush gave a televised speech to the American people in which he admitted that his administration's previous plan in Iraq had not been succeeding. He then announced the implementation of a new plan, one that had been worked out during the second half of the previous year. It required sending more than 20,000 extra troops to Iraq, most of them to secure Baghdad. Also, instead of stationing them to the large American bases outside of the Iraqi cities, these troops would be sent directly into city neighborhoods to help stabilize the country, block by block, starting from Baghdad.

General David H. Petraeus, who had been central to the design of the new counterinsurgency strategy, was selected by President Bush to be the new commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and was confirmed by Congress on January 26, 2007. Eight months later, on September 11 and 12, 2007, General David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker returned to Washington, D.C., and testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the progress in Iraq, detailing the drop in violence due to the "surge" of troops, changed tactics, and the turning of the Anbar Sunnis against Al Qaeda in Iraq, with the help of local sheikhs like Abdul Sattar Abu Risha.

Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the day before hearing the testimony by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, already dismissed the results. "I really respect him, but I think he's dead flat wrong," Biden said about General Petraeus on September 9, 2007. After two days of testimony, Senator Biden was still not persuaded that the new strategy was working. In an interview a few days after the hearing, Senator Biden said, "I give the strategy no chance of succeeding. Zero."

But the surge did succeed, and the decrease in violence that General Petraeus had shown and explained to the Senate Committee has continued, in fact, to this day, almost two years later.

*

New Iraqi Bloggers in 2007:

Zappy -- January, 2007.
BlogIraq -- February, 2007
Sheko Meko -- March, 2007.
Shaqawa -- April, 2007.
Great Baghdad -- April, 2007.
Kassakhoon -- April, 2007.
Mohammed (Last of Iraqis) -- May, 2007.
Sandybelle -- May, 2007.
Bookish (Mosul) -- June, 2007.
Gilgamesh X -- September, 2007.

In 2007 the new crop of Iraqi bloggers was thinner than in previous years. Zappy blogged from the United Kingdom, but posted his last entry on July 6, 2008. Sadly, BlogIraq was killed in Baghdad on April 11, 2008. Perhaps the most prolific and engaging of this class of Iraq bloggers has been Mohammed (Last of Iraqis). Mohammed, we should note, recently became a proud father. Bookish is currently engaged to be married to Najma, a member of the extended family of bloggers from Mosul. Gilgamesh X, an Iraqi exile living in Germany, had been a long-time commenter in the Iraqi blogosphere before starting his blog. Although he hasn't posted very much as of late, his entries and comments are always welcomed in the Iraqi blogosphere.

*

Complete Series:

Part One. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2003.
Part Two. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2004.
Part Three. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2005.
Part Four. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2006.
Part Five. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2007.
Part Six. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2008-09.

Selected Entries from IBC:

CP = Check out comments page for that entry.

January 7, 2007. Iraq's Civilian War. RhusLancia.
January 15, 2007. Where Did Saddam Get His Chemical Weapons? RhusLancia.
January 24, 2007. Resolution Unbound. CMAR II.
March 16, 2007. Democrats: No Surrender! RhusLancia.
March 20, 2007. VP Taha Yassin Ramadan Hanged. CMAR II. CP
March 22, 2007. Finger-Pointing Over at Treasure of Baghdad. CMAR II.
April 19, 2007. How Iraqi Are You? Jeffrey.
April 24, 2007. Whatever Happened to Waleed Rabia? Jeffrey.
April 26, 2007. Comments on the US Congress's Surrender Legislation. CMAR II. CP
April 30, 2007. Riverbend vs Jarrar (How Iraqi Are You II). CMAR II.
May 2, 2007. From the Comments. CMAR II. CP
May 4, 2007. Criminal Hatwear. Jeffrey.
May 11, 2007. We Are on the Same Side. Jeffrey.
May 13, 2007. Iraqis Outside Both the Red and Green Zones. Jeffrey.
May 14, 2007. How Would You Like Your 'Wall Resolution' Served?. RhusLancia.
May 16, 2007. I Pledge Allegiance to .... Jeffrey. CP
May 20, 2007. Basra Writ Large? Jeffrey.
May 21, 2007. Iraqi Bloggers Central: Three-Year Anniversary! Jeffrey. CP
May 27, 2007. RhusLancia: Five Month-iversary! RhusLancia. CP (Mohammed from "Last of Iraqis" visits IBC for the first time.)
June 2, 2007. Fatal Glass of Beer. Jeffrey.
June 10, 2007. Let's Catch a Wave. Jeffrey. CP (Jeffrey vs. Bruno)
June 23, 2007. Valentines for Saddam. Jeffrey. CP
July 9, 2007. Operation Arrowhead Ripper: Two Points of View. CMAR II. CP
July 24, 2007. Close Encounters. RhusLanica.
July 29, 2007. Congratuations Iraq. CMAR II.
August 7, 2007. How About a Strongman? RhusLancia.
August 21, 2007. TIA ... MIA?. RhusLancia. CP
September 14, 2007. Sunni Mourners: Al Qaeda is the Enemy of Allah. Jeffrey.
September 24, 2007. The Sons Of Blackwater. CMAR II. CP
October 10, 2007. Just Your Typical Rank Hypocrisy. Jeffrey. CP
November 15, 2007. Treasure of Baghdad: Deny, Deny, Deny! Jeffrey.
November 21, 2007. Layla Anwar Answers the Eternal Question. RhusLancia.
November 27, 2007. Iraq Punditry at Its Best. Jeffrey.
November 29, 2007. Maliki Loves "Family Guy" Jeffrey.
December 5, 2007. Baghdad: City of Neighborhoods. Jeffrey.
December 9, 2007. A Blog Entry in which I Agree with Adnan al-Dulaimi. Jeffrey.
December 18, 2007. The Al Askari Cascade
(or "the Persistence of Pessimism"). CMAR II. CP
December 23, 2007. Madtom vs CMAR II. CMAR II. CP
December 27, 2007. I'm done commenting at 24StepsToLiberty. CMAR II. CP
December 31, 2007. Happy New Year from IBC! Jeffrey.

*

Selected Articles, Blog Entries, and Documents from 2007:

January 10, 2007. Text of President Bush's Speech on January 10, 2007.

Iraqi Mojo, "Sectarianism," Iraqi Mojo (website), April 30, 2007.

Mohammed, "The Complete Story Of Muqtada and Al-Mahdi Army," Last of Iraqis (website), June 20, 2007.

Hayder al-Khoei, "The Untold Story," Eye Raki (website), July 4, 2007.

Small Wars Journal (online), "General David Petraeus / Ambassador Ryan Crocker Testimony," September 11-12, 2007.

Mohammed, "Awakening," Last of Iraqis, November 16, 2007.

Iraq Pundit, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," IraqPundit: Observations of an Iraqi Exile, December 4, 2007.

Abbas Hawazin, "Konfused Kid Abandons Heavy Metal," Catharsis (website), December 31, 2007.

*

Books Covering 2007:

Michael Yon, Moment of Truth in Iraq: How a New 'Greatest Generation' of American Soldiers is Turning Defeat and Disaster into Victory and Hope (2008).

Bing West, The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq (2008).

Thomas E. Ricks, The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 (2009).

*

Books Published in 2007:

Ian Kraus, Elvis is Titanic: Classroom Tales from the Other Iraq.
David Bellavia, House to House: An Epic Memoir of War.
Dahr Jamail, Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq.
Mike Hoyt and John Palattello (eds.), Reporting Iraq: An Oral History of the War by the Journalists Who Covered It.
Ashley Gilbertson, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War.

*

A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2006

2009-04-28T10:09:00.001-07:00

Golden Mosque, Samarra, February 22, 2006
Year in Review: 2006

In 2006, three events easily stand out above all the others. In February, the Golden Mosque in Samarra was bombed; in June, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by US forces; and in December, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death and then was hung in Baghdad. The destruction of the al-Askari Mosque in Samarra had by far the most far-reaching consequences. Because of that event, no Iraqi would ever want to live through a year like 2006 again. And yet, the bombing was in reality the culmination of tension between Sunnis and Shiites that had been building ever since the fall of Baghdad. For Sunni and Shiite Iraqis, the years after the fall of Baghdad had been uneasy and tentative. Shiites began to assert power, while Sunnis tried to hold on to power.

In a representative democracy with elections, the Shiites, clearly a majority within Iraq, figured they simply had to wait for the elections to take place to make gains, which in fact happened in January and December of 2005. The Sunni insurgents from Anbar responded by attacking anyone working for the current government. They also continued to help Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the foreign jihadists, also of the Sunni sect, as they brought terror to the country with a widespread campaign of suicide-bombing in a variety of forms, from a vest filled with explosives to a car-bomb driven by an neighboring Arab with the zeal of the religious fanatic.

All of this had been going on for the last few years when, on February 22, 2006, the Golden Mosque was destroyed. By all accounts, the reaction of the Shiites to this atrocity was instantaneous and brutal. In the next few days over a thousand Sunni Iraqis would be killed, setting off of the bloodiest spring and summer that Baghdad had ever seen. Zarqawi's hope of creating a civil war was at hand. Revenge killings, reprisals, and counter-attacks between sects sharply increased over the new few months. According to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count website, which had begun keeping statistics on Iraqi deaths that January, August and September were the bloodiest months; for the month of September they counted 3,539 Iraqi fatalities. Because of these attacks, many of those Iraqis who could afford to flee the country did so. Those who couldn't afford to leave often relocated to other parts of Iraq. Baghdad in particular went through a period where previously mixed neighborhoods became either Sunni or Shia strongholds.

While both Iraqis and Americans were happy to learn of the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, everyone was uncertain what his demise meant in the larger picture. Similarly, probably a majority of Iraqis and certainly the majority of Americans were pleased to see Saddam Hussein sentenced and hung at the end of the year. But, as with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death, no one knew if it would really make any difference. Iraqis had other problems to think about; they were faced with the real possibility of a civil war.

By the end of the the bloody year of 2006, two different groups had been greatly affected by the carnage and chaos over the summer and were ready to make fundamental changes. First, in Washington, D.C., President George Bush had begun to prepare a speech to be given in January of 2007 that would no doubt surprise many people. Instead of drawing down troops, he would announce that he was ordering an increase in troops in Iraq, a "surge" of forces along with a concomitant change in tactics that would be overseen by General David H. Petraeus.

The other surprise of 2007 would come from the unlikeliest of places, Anbar province, where earlier in 2006 one local sheikh -- Abdul Sattar Abu Risha -- had seen too many family members killed by the foreign jihadists among them. In the fall of 2006, he decided to create what he called the "Anbar Salvation Council." Working with this group of local sheikhs, he would encourage Sunnis to join the Iraqi police and military. He also approached the US military to form an alliance with the Americans with one goal in mind: the total defeat Al Qaeda in Iraq.

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New Iraqi Bloggers in 2006:

Eye Raki -- February, 2006.
Hala -- February, 2006.
Chikitita -- March, 2006.
Saminkie (Colors of Mind / Skies) -- April, 2006
Gilgamesh (Into the Sun) -- June, 2006.
Layla Anwar -- July, 2006,
Marshmallow 26 -- August, 2006.
Mix Max -- September, 2006.
Iraqi Mojo -- October, 2006.
A & E Iraqi -- November, 2006.
Iraqi Atheist -- December, 2006.
M.H.Z. -- December, 2006.

In February, 2006, a new blogger showed up in the Iraqi blogosphere under the name "Eye Raki." Before too long, everyone realized that "Eye Raki" was, in fact, Hayder al-Khoei, grandson of Ayatollah Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei, the cleric who had been murdered just after the fall of Baghdad in 2003. Hayder spends time both in England and Iraq and continues to blog, offering followers of the Iraqi blogosphere inside looks at the local Iraqi political maneuvers.

Chikitita, like several other Iraqi bloggers, stayed away from politics and wrote something closer to a personal diary, focusing on daily events and the people around her. Like so many of the Iraqi bloggers, she writes beautiful English and has a unique sense of humor. Sami (Skies) is an Iraqi psychologist who blogs about what interests him, whether an issue related to psychology, an old book, or something he heard or saw during the day. Like Chikitita, Sami rarely talks about political issues.

Layla Anwar, who began blogging in July, is an unapologetic supporter of Saddam Hussein. More than most bloggers, Layla is able to channel deep pools of emotion, allowing her to write a seemingly endless succession of short paragraphs that produce in the reader a kind of hypnosis. Her hatreds are the secret fuel of her strophic keyboarding.

Marshmallow 26, an Iraqi Christian, began blogging the next month, in August. Like Chikitita, she blogs mostly about family life but occasionally discusses politics. She is now married and is now -- early May, 2009 -- holding a passport with a visa stamp for the United States, where she will soon be living with her husband and thus starting a new chapter in her life.

In October, Iraqi Mojo, who had been a long-time commenter in the Iraqi blogosphere, began blogging himself. Iraqi Mojo was born in Iraq but arrived in the United States with his family as a boy. As an Iraqi-American, one of his major assets as a commentator has been his knowledge and understanding of both Iraqi and American cultures. He continues to blog today and his comments page, over the last several years, has been a forum for much intense debate on all types of issues. M.H.Z., an intelligent young man with a keen sense of humor, began blogging at the end of the year, first in Baghdad, then Arbil, and finally in the state of Texas, USA.

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Complete Series:

Part One. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2003.
Part Two. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2004.
Part Three. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2005.
Part Four. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2006.
Part Five. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2007.
Part Six. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2008-09.

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Selected Blog Entries from IBC:

CP = Check out comments page for that entry.

January 4, 2006. Bush & Co Has Made Zero Mistakes in the Iraq Intervention. CMAR II. CP
January 13, 2006. Fight for Your Right to Party. CMAR II.
January 25, 2006. The In T View: Baghdad Treasure, Iraqi Journalist And Blogger. Mister Ghost / Bassam Sebti.
January 31, 2006. What Is Wrong With the Middle East?? CMAR II.
February 16, 2006. Victory at Tal Afar. CMAR II. CP (TAI, CMAR II, Jeffrey, madtom, and Rubin)
February 23, 2006. Hey, Iraqi Sunnis, it's called BLOWBACK!!!. Jeffrey. CP.
February 25, 2006. Who Did It? CMAR II.
February 27, 2006. The Samarra Shrine and Shia Mischief. Mister Ghost.
February 28. 2006. TV Party Tonight!. Jeffrey.
March 2, 2006. Archival Nugget: Zeyad on the Capture of Saddam Hussein. Jeffrey.
March 7, 2006. Waitihg Game. Jeffrey
March 9, 2006. Anarki-13 and His Droogs. Jeffrey.
March 14, 2006. Muqtada Al-Sadr and Unrequited Love. (Includes Photos of Sam Sandmonkey) Jeffrey.
March 17, 2006. Morbid Smile on NPR. Jeffrey.
March 22, 2006. 3 Feet High and Rising? Jeffrey.
March 30, 2006. The Fundamental Question. Jeffrey. CP
April 4, 2006. Islamic Imperial Hubris? Jeffrey.
April 18, 2006. A Day in the Life. Jeffrey. CP
April 26, 2006. Wonderful Sunshine. Mister Ghost / Sunshine (Mosul)
May 4, 2006. Slugfest: Hitchens V Cole. CMAR II.
May 15, 2006. Two Iraqi Views on Why There Is Sectarianism In Iraq Today. CMAR II.
May 21, 2006. Iraqi Bloggers Central Two-Year Anniversary! Jeffrey.
July 10, 2006. The In T View: The Readers Of Iraq The Model Sound Off: Soldier's Dad. Mister Ghost / Soldier's Dad
July 10, 2006. The In T View: The Readers Of Iraq The Model Sound Off: Scott From Oregon. Mister Ghost / Scott from Oregon
July 11, 2006. The In T View: The Readers Of Iraq The Model Sound Off: Lydia. Mister Ghost / Lydia
July 15, 2006. The In T View: The Readers Of Iraq The Model Sound Off: Indigo Red. Mister Ghost / Indigo Red
July 28, 2006. The In T View: The Readers Of Iraq The Model Sound Off: Outlaw Mike. Mister Ghost / Outlaw Mike
August 1, 2006. The In T View: The Readers Of Iraq The Model Sound Off: Peter From Australia. Mister Ghost / Peter
August 7, 2006. The In T View: The Readers Of Iraq The Model Sound Off: Don Cox. Mister Ghost / Don Cox
August 16, 2006. Jill Carroll Kidnapping Investigation Yields New Information on Other Abductions. CMAR II.
September 11, 2006. The Price of Freedom. D.C.
September 12, 2006. An Arab Speaks Out. D.C.
September 14, 2006. Bleakness Among the Blogosphere: The Iraqi Bloggers Sound Off. Mister Ghost. CP
October 5, 2006. Looking For Good News From The Iraqi Bloggers. Mister Ghost.
October 19, 2006. The In T View: Bill Putnam, Combat Photographer On Iraq, War, Photography, And Blogging. Mister Ghost / Bill Putnam.
October 31, 2006. Stop the Presses! Jeffrey.
November 17, 2006. Iraqi MOJO!! Yeah, Baby! Jeffrey. CP
November 21, 2006. The Education of Nir Rosen. Jeffrey. CP
December 29, 2006. From Palace to Spiderhole to Hangman's Noose. Jeffrey.
December 31, 2006. Iraqi Bloggers on Saddam's Execution. RhusLancia.

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Selected Articles, Blog Entries, and Documents from 2006:

Omar Fekeiki, "Oh Boy, This Will Be Controversial," 24 Steps to Liberty (website), January 2, 2006. (Pre- and Post-Saddam Iraq Explained) CP

Iraq Pundit, "Deluded Dictator. IraqPundit: Observations of an Iraqi Exile (website), January 3, 2006.

Sam Sandmonkey, "On Heroes and Hypocrites," Rantings of a Sandmonkey, February 13, 2006.

Ali Fadhil, "Civil war, is it close, and is it really a disaster?" Free Iraqi (website), February 22, 2006.

Zeyad Kasim, "Samarra Attack, the Last Straw?" Healing Iraq, February 22, 2006. CP

Zeyad Kasim, "Baghdad Returns to 'Normal', Night Skirmishes Continue," Healing Iraq, February 28, 2006. CP

Akba, "A Year of Blunders," Iraq Rising (website), March 1, 2006. CP

Abbas Hawazin, "Battle of Adhamiya, Live as LIVE Can Be," Catharsis, April 19, 2006.

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, "Inside Iraq's Hidden War," Guardian, May 20, 2006.

Iraq Pundit, "A Liberal-Islamist Axis? IraqPundit: Observations of an Iraqi Exile, June 1, 2006.

Steven Pressfield, Tribalism is the Real Enemy in Iraq," Seattle PI, June 18, 2006.

AYS, "The Power of Force," Iraq at a Glance (website), October 8, 2006.

Sooni, "Few Things about the Situation in Iraq," Sooni: Expressing Myself (website), October 27, 2006.

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Books Published in 2006:

Jackie Spinner and Jenny Spinner, Tell Them I Didn't Cry.
Michael Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor, Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq.
Nir Rosen, In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq.
Fouad Ajami, The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq.
Thomas Ricks, Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq.
Ray LeMoine, Jeff Newmann, and Donovan Webster, Babylon by Bus.
Jo Wilding, Don't Shoot the Clowns: Taking a Circus to the Real Iraq.
Riverbend, Baghdad Burning II: More Girl Blog from Iraq.
Rajiv Chandresekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City.
Patrick O'Donnell, We Were One.

*

A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2005

2009-04-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

Year in Review: 2005

For Iraqis, 2005 was a year in which they participated in two elections and a referendum. They voted on January 30, October 15, and December 15. The first vote, on January 30, was held despite the explicit warnings from Al Qaeda in Iraq not to attempt this step toward democracy. Looking back at the reports being filed in the weeks leading up to the election, one notes that no one was optimistic about the outcome, often with good reason. According to Dexter Filkins of the New York Times, he and his colleagues had started an office pool to see who could predict the percentage of Iraqis who would vote; the precentages being considered were between fifteen and twenty-four percent. By the end of the day, however, all observers were impressed by the courage of the Iraqi citizens and the long lines of Iraqis who walked to the polling stations to vote. Estimates of the actual turnout vary between fifty and sixty percent. The photos of Iraqis with purple fingers, inked at the voting centers to show that they had voted, were spread around the world.

At the end of the day, Lieutenant Colonel Scott Stanger, one of the Americans who had helped provide security, wrote:

Even though today was a great day for Iraq, the Iraqis took their lumps. There were 6 car bombs in Iraq today, 2 of them in Baghdad. One I believe did more for Iraqi moral than any other event I that I have ever witnessed here. A suicide car bomber drove up to a polling site, which was not to far from us, and blew up. The bomb did not kill anybody but the bomber himself. After the bomb went off the Iraqi voters calmly walked out of the polling site and spit on the remains of the suicide bomber.

On October 15, Iraqis went to the polls to vote on a referendum for the new Constitution; it was ratified by a wide margin. And then, on December 15, there was a general election to seat the new 275-member Parliament. The United Iraqi Alliance ticket won 128 seats, the largest share of any of the parties, followed by the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan with 53, Iraqi Accord Front with 44, and the Iraqi National List with 25.

By voting three times in the course of the year, the Iraqi people had landed three body blows to Al Qaeda in Iraq, but battlegrounds are kinetic, as they say, and the response would soon come. Already back in 2003, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had begun targeting Shiite Iraqis, for sectarian reasons and in the hope of fomenting a civil war between Sunnis and Shia that would bring the entire country down. In February, 2006, with the bombing of the al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, Zarqawi's dream had its best chance of becoming reality.

*

New Iraqi Bloggers in 2005:

Dr. Truth Teller -- January, 2005.
Hassan (Average Iraqi) -- February, 2005.
Ahmad (Iraqi Expat) -- March, 2005.
Morbid Smile -- April, 2005.
Sunshine -- April, 2005.
Sooni -- April, 2005.
Akba -- April, 2005.
Salam Adil (Asterism) -- May, 2005.
Mama (Sunshine's mother) -- July, 2005.
Iraqi Roulette -- July, 2005.
Konfused Kid -- July, 2005.
Omar (24) -- August, 2005.
Treasure of Baghdad -- August, 2005.
Caesar of Pentra -- September, 2005.
Attawie -- September, 2005.
Michomeme -- September, 2005.
Still Alive (My Letters to America) -- September, 2005.
Iraqi Lord -- November, 2005.

In 2005 a new crop of Iraqi bloggers appeared. Instead of the architects and dentists of the first wave, the second wave was a mixed group of college students or recent graduates.

Morbid Smile, a student of English literature in Baghdad, started blogging in April. She also started a photoblog that she kept from October, 2005, to June, 2006. On September 2, 2006, she arrived in the United States with a Fulbright scholarship. For the next two years, she studied for and then completed her Master's Degree, writing a thesis on Jane Austen. She returned to Iraq in September of 2008, but has not yet returned to blogging.

Konfused Kid, a fan of heavy-metal at the time, began blogging in July. During the breakdown in security in Baghdad, Konfused Kid decided to move to Jordan. Later, while in Amman, he began to reassess his musical tastes and began to reject heavy-metal, turning more toward tradtional Iraqi music. In February, 2008, he announced that he was no longer "Konfused Kid." His new name was "Abbas Hawazin." He also changed the name of his blog to "Catharsis." Still in Jordan today, Konfused Kid/Abbas Hawazin continues to blog on a fairly regular basis.

Omar Fekeiki (24 Steps to Liberty) and Bassam Sebti (Treasure of Baghdad) were both working for The Washington Post when they began blogging in August. Omar Fekeiki received a visa from the US to attend the graduate school in journalism at Berkeley. While in college, Omar blogged frequently and his comments pages were a forum for many discussions. He stopped blogging, however, on April 15, 2008. That May, at his graduation ceremony, Omar gave a commencement speech and then looked into the audience for Ban Hameed, a woman he had met eight years earlier in Baghdad.

Fekeiki told the audience he had one more thing to say, and then told her that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. They embraced, she sobbed and he gave her a ring. Although this came as a surprise to her, he had been reasonably sure she'd say yes. "I'm a good reporter," he said Monday. "I did research before I did it."

Since then, IBC has not heard anything about Omar Fekeiki. Bassam Sebti (Treasure of Baghdad) also came to the United States on a student visa, attending St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, where he completed a Master's in Writing. Today he is living and working in Washington, D.C., where he is the Arabic Editor for the International Journalists' Network; he blogs occasionally and has a Twitter account.

Like Fayrouz, Ahmad (Iraqi Expat) was an Iraqi living abroad (London) when he began blogging, offering his comments on events happening back in Iraq; he stopped blogging on August 22, 2005. Salam Adil, another exile, started a blog that focused on summarizing the differing views of the Iraqi bloggers and keeping the editorial commentary to a minimum. Never a prolific blogger, his blog posts these days are even more infrequent than usual. While many Iraqi bloggers were focused on political issues, Caesar of Pentra, like Shaggy, wrote about his daily life and his own concerns. He relocated to Jordan for a while but then returned to Baghdad. He is currently trying to finish his undergraduate degree and doesn't update his blog very often.

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Also in 2005 there were three American bloggers that we blogrolled and to whom we began to link. Michael Yon, an ex-Special Forces soldier, and Michael J. Totten, holding an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, began blogging about and eventually reporting from Iraq and the Middle East. The third, Steven Vincent, was an arts journalist living in New York City on September 11, 2001. What happened that day would end up completely changing the focus of his writing. After two trips to Iraq, one in the fall of 2003 and the other in the spring of 2004, Vincent returned to New York City and published "In the Red Zone," part memoir and part analysis of Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Through his publisher, Spence, Vincent began a blog also called "In the Red Zone," writing his first entry on December 2, 2004.

Although he worked as a professional journalist, Vincent immediately recognized the significance and potential of bloggers. Looking back at the results of the vote on January 30, 2005, Vincent wrote:

I can't imagine how the liberation of Iraq would have progressed without the hundreds, the thousands, of blogs that cut through the anti-war bias of the MSM. By giving a voice to people and viewpoints which otherwise would have gone silent, bloggers helped articulate the cause of democracy and civil rights that lies at the base of this conflict.

Early on Vincent blogrolled Iraqi Bloggers Central and began linking to our entries, just as we did at IBC. Steven and I regularly met each other on his comments pages and compared notes. I had been following all of his blog entries written on his second trip to Iraq when I read one morning that he had been killed in Basra. It was a shock from which I have not yet really recovered.

It is difficult to choose a single blog entry from Steven Vincent to give you an idea of his spirit and compassion, but I think this one gets very close:

January 29, 2005. "Prayers for Iraq." Steven Vincent, written on the eve of the Iraqi elections on January 30, 2005.

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Complete Series:

Part One. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2003.
Part Two. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2004.
Part Three. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2005.
Part Four. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2006.
Part Five. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2007.
Part Six. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2008-09.

*

Selected Blog Entries from IBC:

CP = Check out comments page for that entry.

January 2, 2005. Emigre to Iraqis: Stop the Vote! Jeffrey. CP
January 5, 2005. Husayn to Zarqawi: Die You Dirty Dog. Jeffrey.
January 22, 2005. If Sarah Boxer Were a Blogger.... Jeffrey.
January 30, 2005. Iraqis' Historic Vote! Jeffrey. CP
February 4, 2005. Khalid Adjusts Tin-Foil Hat for Better Reception. Jeffrey. CP
February 17, 2005. Ripped Blue Jeans and Tennies. Jeffrey.
February 21, 2005. We Are Iraq The Model Nation. Mister Ghost / Omar Fadhil.
February 24, 2005. The In T View: Fayrouz Hancock. Mister Ghost / Fayrouz Hancock.
March 12, 2005. The In T View: Kurdo Unbound! Mister Ghost / Kurdo.
March 16, 2005. The In T View: Neurotic Iraqi Wife ~ Not So Neurotic After All. Mister Ghost / NIW.
April 25, 2005. The In T View: Ferid The Great, Iraqi Renaissance Man. Mister Ghost / Ferid.
May 3, 2005. The In T View: Iraq The Model's Omar - Blogging's Modest Superstar. Mister Ghost / Omar Fadhil.
May 5, 2005. Steven Vincent Reports from Umm Qasr. Jeffrey.
May 5, 2005. The In T View: Sandmonkey - No Monkeying Around For This Rising Star Of The Blogosphere. Mister Ghost / Sam Sandmonkey.
May 10, 2005. Steven Vincent Reports from Umm Qasr. Jeffrey.
May 12, 2005. The In T View: Sam From Hammorabi. Mister Ghost / Hammorabi Sam.
May 24, 2005. Iraqis Examine Saddam's Undies. Jeffrey.
May 28, 2005. Hope in the Middle East? Jeffrey. CP
May 30, 2005. The In T View: Kat Proudly From The Midwest. Mister Ghost / Kat.
June 16, 2005. Are Iraqis Crocodiles? Jeffrey. CP
June 18, 2005. Faiza in America. Jeffrey. CP
June 30, 2005. The In T View: Akbar From Iraq Rising And So Is He. Mister Ghost / Akbar.
July 5, 2005. The In T View: Ahmad From Iraqi Expat. Mister Ghost / Ahmad.
July 14, 2005. What Faiza Learned from Her Summer Vacation to America. Jeffrey.
July 26, 2005. Snooping through the Archives. Jeffrey.
July 27, 2005. In Basra, Steven Vincent Hears an Echo from Graham Greene. Jeffrey.
August 3, 2005. Steven Vincent Killed in Iraq. Jeffrey. CP
August 4, 2005. Raed Jarrar and Ayman Al-Zawahri Together Again! Jeffrey.
August 12, 2005. Jeffrey Tries to Join Snarkaholics Anonymous. Jeffrey.
August 26, 2005. The Cruelty of Mercy: The Trouble With the Sunni Arabs & The Potential For Ethnic Cleansing in Iraq. CMAR II.
August 31, 2005. The In T View: Ali Fadhil - Cast Off From Blogging Heaven, He Found His Truth Elsewhere. Mister Ghost / Ali Fadhil
September 27, 2005. Ba'athist by the Bay. Jeffrey. CP
September 29, 2005. Who is Niki Akhavan? Jeffrey.
October 12, 2005. Zawahiri Letter Translated...the Jihadi PR Machine. CMAR II.
October 13, 2005. New Mongrel on the Block. Jeffrey.
October 20, 2005. Throwing Down the Gauntlet with Khalid Jarrar. CMAR II. CP
October 23, 2005. The Truth about Iraq and the Iraqis? Jeffrey.
October 28, 2005. Speak, Wise Sandmonkey! Jeffrey.
November 1, 2005. Ghaith's Return to Iraq. Jeffrey. CP
November 13, 2005. Allbritton Beaten Up by "Peace Activists"! Jeffrey.
November 17, 2005. White Heat. CMAR II. CP
November 21, 2005. The Blood Just Won't Come Off Sites' Hands. Jeffrey. CP
November 28, 2005. Saddam's Torturer: Working In Iraq Interior Ministry. CMAR II.
December 5, 2005. The Saddam Trial II. CMAR II. CP
December 7, 2005. Saddam III. CMAR II. CP
December 9, 2005. Kudzu in the Lead Graph. Jeffrey. CP
December 22, 2005. The In T View: 24 Steps To Liberty, Iraqi Journalist. Mister Ghost / Omar Fekeiki.
December 23, 2005. Crunching the Numbers. Jeffrey. CP
December 24, 2005. Iraq by Numbers. Jeffrey.

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Selected Articles, Blog Entries, and Documents from 2005:

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, "Bleeding the Weak," Guardian, January 3, 2005.

Nasser Flayih Hasan, "How the Left Betrayed My Country - Iraq," FrontPage Magazine (online), January 3, 2005.

Sam Sandmonkey, "The 7 Rules of the A.P.U.," Rantings of a Sandmonkey (website), January 6, 2005.

Wendell Steavenson, "Election Day in Najaf," Slate, January 30, 2005.

Youssef M. Ibrahim, "New Kind of Awe in the Mideast," USA Today, January 31, 2005.

Neil Prakash, "SPC ROBY: 1, IED: 1," Armor Geddon (website), January 31, 2005.

Cecile Landman, "Baghdad Blogger Salam Pax Talks to Streamtime," Streamtime (website), February 10, 2005. (Interview with Salam Pax -- text/audio)

Omar Fadhil, "The Magic of Pajamas," Iraq the Model, February 16, 2005.

Akba, "The Day I Met Papa Saddam," Iraq Rising, April 29, 2005.

Mark Memmott, 'Milbloggers' are typing their place in history," USA Today, May 11, 2005.

Akba, "A Nut-House Called Iraq," Iraq Rising (website), June 13, 2005.

Steven Vincent, "The Stringer," National Review Online, June 14, 2005.

Fayrouz Hancock, "Stop Whining and Start Rebuilding," Fayrouz in Dallas (website), June 20, 2005.

Steven Vincent, "Fallen Virtue," In the Red Zone (website), June 24, 2005.

Ahmad, "State of Rage," Iraqi Expat (website), July 7, 2005. (Response to Terrorism in London)
CP

Sooni, "Voting Photos from Baghdad," Sooni: Expressing Myself, October 15, 2005.

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, "'We don't need al-Qaida'," Guardian, October 27, 2005.

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, The New Sunni Jihad: 'A Time for Politics', Washington Post, October 27, 2005.

Bassam Sebti, "Enemies!! Treasure of Baghdad's Diary," Treasure of Baghdad, November 8, 2005. CP (Bassam Sebti and Omar Fekeiki excerpt from e-mails sent to Riverbend)

Frontline (PBS), "Interview: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad," Fall, 2005.

Salam Pax, "Iraq Restaurant Bomb Kills Dozens," Shut Up You Fat Whiner, November 11, 2005.

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Books Published in 2005:

Capt. Jason Conroy and Ron Martz, Heavy Metal: A Tank Company's Battle to Baghdad.
John Coopman, McCoy's Marines: Darkside to Baghdad.
Yaroslav Trofimov, Faith at War: A Journey to the Frontlines of Islam, from Baghdad to Timbuktu.
Riverbend, Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq.
Anthony Shadid, Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War.
George Packer, Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq.
Bing West, No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle of Fallujah.
Colby Buzzel, My War: Killing Time in Iraq.
Nathanial Fick, One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine.
Matthew Bogdanos, Thieves of Baghdad.

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A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2004

2009-04-26T07:26:00.000-07:00

Year in Review: 2004

In 2004, many of the major players for the future of Iraq -- the Sunni insurgents, the foreign jihadists led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and Muqtada al-Sadr and his Madhi militia -- began to assert themselves, testing the extent of their power in post-Saddam Iraq. During the first half of 2004, due to the weak Iraq Governing Council and the imminent dissolution of the Coalition Provisional Authority, those who wanted to take advantage of this transitional situation did so -- in March from Muqtada al-Sadr, and in April by the insurgents and the foreign fighters in Fallujah. Then, on June 23, 2004, governmental power was formally transferred to the Iraqi Interim Government, with Iyad Allawi as prime minister. The second half of the year saw further challenges, in August from Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf and in November from the foreign jihadists in Fallujah. 2004 also saw an increase in the anger, disbelief, and bitterness from both the Iraqis and Americans as they responded, in turn, to the photos of abused Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and to the murder of the Americans whose bodies had been mutiliated and hung from a bridge outside Fallujah. Neither event shows the representative behavior of Iraqis or Americans, but those images nonetheless tapped into deep-seated fears for both sides.

The insurgents, mostly Sunni Ba'athists, continued to work with Al Qaeda in Iraq in an attempt to bring down whatever kind of government that the Coalition forces were trying to stand up. They offered logistical support to the jihadists in return for the lethality that the foreign fighters could bring against the government and Coalition forces. It was a relationship of shared goals -- at least it seemed so to the Sunni insurgents at the beginning -- and mutual support.

At the same time, the Shiites following Muqtada Al-Sadr, many of them having joined his Madhi militias, were attempting to push the Coalition forces out of Iraq and to assert their power over the Sunnis, now that Saddam Hussein had been removed from power. Muqtada Al-Sadr was also trying to secure a position of leadership over all Shiite Iraqis. His first move had come immediately after the fall of Baghdad when his followers murdered Abdul Majid al-Khoei, his rival, outside the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf. In the spring and summer of 2004, Muqtada Al-Sadr's militias seized several towns in an uprising against the weak Iraqi government. The US and Iraqi militaries fought back, forcing Muqtada and the Madhi militiamen to retreat to the mosque in Najaf. After long negotiations between Allawi, Sistani, and Muqtada Al-Sadr, a deal was reached that allowed the members of the Madhi militiamen to lay down their weapons and walk out of the shrine to fight another day. Both times that the Madhi militia had engaged the US forces they were crushed. In 2004 Muqtada al-Sadr learned the limits of his so-called Mahdi Army. He would never again challenge the US militarily head-to-head and, from then on, he sought different ways of increasing his power in the new Iraq.

Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had taken over Fallujah and were using the city in Anbar as a command center for their country-wide operations. It is also where they built IED factories, torture chambers, and where they filmed the beheading of the American Nicholas Berg. In April, responding to the murder and mutilation of four American contractors in Fallujah, the US forces surrounded and began an assault on the city, but by the end of the month a ceasefire was in place and the city of Fallujah was allowed to devolve back into a haven for both Iraqi insurgents and Al-Qaeda in Iraq. On November 7, 2004, three days after President George Bush was elected to a second term, the go-ahead was given for Operation Phantom Fury, Fallujah II. By the end of the operation, there was no question who had won the second engagement. Those foreign fighters who weren't killed fled to other parts of Iraq, many of them, over the next few years, eventually being killed by either Coalition forces or by members of the Awakening movement, former Sunni insurgents who realized that Al-Qaeda in Iraqi was killing far more of their people than Americans.

Like Muqtada al-Sadr and the Madhi militia, the foreign jihadists led by Zarqawi would never again attempt to engage the US military in set battles. They too had learned the limits of their fighting capacity. With that lesson learned, Zarqawi re-focused his tactics, increasing the suicide-bombings in the hope of fomenting a civil war between the Sunnis and Shia as the best way forward.

Although there had been much violence and bloodshed over the year, in December there was one hopeful outcome. After months of negotiations, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who had exhibited the extent of his power over Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf in August, was able to secure three dates for voting in the following year, 2005: legislative elections on January 30, a constitutional referendum on October 15, and finally a parliamentary election on December 15.

*

New Iraqi Bloggers for 2004:

Liminal -- January, 2004.
Majid Jarrar -- February, 2004.
Raed Jarrar -- March, 2004.
Ibn Alrafidain -- June, 2004.
Najma -- June, 2004.
Sara -- June, 2004.
Hiwa -- June, 2004.
Iraq Pundit -- July, 2004.
Kurdistan Bloggers Union (Dilnareen et al.) -- July, 2004.
HNK -- July, 2004.
Raghda -- July, 2004.
Salam Pax (Fat Whiner) -- August, 2004.
Rose -- August, 2004.
Anarki-13 -- August, 2004.
Nancy (Beth Nahrain) -- August, 2004.
Neurotic Iraqi Wife -- August, 2004.
Shaggy -- September, 2004
Ali Fadhil (Free Iraqi) -- December, 2004.

Of the three original friends -- Salam Pax, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, and Raed Jarrar -- Raed Jarrar had by far the worst English-language writing skills. His entries were often difficult to understand. Was he simply having trouble writing English? Was he drinking while blogging? Or was he just naturally nuts? "While Salam Pax has always been an ironist and Ghaith the most passionate critic of the Saddam regime," I wrote in an entry for Iraqi Bloggers Central, "Raed has been the most unpredictable and unstable, sometimes writing like an inebriated Italian futurist while at other times like a slightly medicated and thoroughly paranoid Hunter S. Thompson."

A few months later, Iraq Pundit, a blogger who could not be more different from Raed Jarrar, started blogging. Today he is still pumping out some of the best analysis of media coverage on Iraq. Up in Mosul, a teenager named Najma (A Star in Mosul) was the first of an entire family of bloggers to start writing. Today she is in college and has recently gotten engaged to -- believe it or not -- Bookish, another blogger.

Shaggy, the loner and absolute crazy diamond of the Iraqi blogosphere, had written one blog entry in May, took a four-month break, but then returned to blogging that September. Today Shaggy has become a farmer who spends time down on the farm in Shamiya and then back in Baghdad with his buddies. In July, Dilnareen and a few other bloggers started Kurdistan Bloggers Union. Salam Pax started a new blog in August, naming it, with his distinctive, self-deprecating humor, "Shut Up You Fat Fat Whiner." Ali Fadhil started his own blog called "Free Iraqi" at the end of the year.

In 2004 Iraqi Bloggers Central also began following the American milbloggers, five in particular: Jason (Iraq Now), Kevin (Boots on the Ground), Jeremy Botter (Letters from Iraq), Neil Prakash (Armor Geddon), and CBFTW (My War: Fear and Loathing in Iraq). Jason had been stationed in Ramadi; since his return to the US he has continued blogging at "Countercolumn." Neil Prakash, whose call sign was Red Six, later offered the "Armor Geddon" readers his account of a tanker's experiences in Fallujah II. The blogger we knew as CBFTW turned out to be Colby Buzzell, who would later leave the military and use his blog as the basis for his memoir called "My War."

*

Complete Series:

Part One. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2003.
Part Two. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2004.
Part Three. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2005.
Part Four. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2006.
Part Five. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2007.
Part Six. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2008-09.

*

Selected Blog Entries from IBC (Jeffrey):

CP = Check out comments page for that entry.

May 23, 2004. Faiza Would More Likely Vote for Bush than Kerry. CP
May 25, 2004. Mr. Peabody's Improbable History / Salam Pax, Raed Jarrar, and Gaith "G" Ahad. CP
May 26, 2004. Twilight Zone: Judge and Executioner. CP
May 27, 2004. War and Its Discontents.
May 28, 2004. Optimists versus Pessimists? CP
May 29, 2004. Revenge of the Secular Muslims. CP
May 31, 2004. Another Jeffrey Holmes Mystery: The Strange Case of Asmar Ahmad
June 1, 2004. Primary Sources: The War Diary of Faiza Jarrar.
June 9, 2004. Lisa from New York's Letter to Faiza.
June 10, 2004. Raed Jarrar: Saddam, Mein Fuehrer!
June 27, 2004. The Story of Three Iraqi Friends.
June 30, 2004. Fuzzy and Dangerous Logic.
July 10, 2004. A Vote for Al-Kerry is a Vote for Al-Qaeda. CP
July 15, 2004. An Iraqi Reviews Fahrenheit 9/11.
July 20, 2004. One Happy Iraqi: Hearts and Minds and ???? Support Operation Iraqi Boner. CP
August 3, 2004. Iraqis Respond to Attack on Christian Churches.
August 5, 2004. CBFTW Reports from Inside a Kill Zone.
August 6, 2004. AYS Addresses the Fat Stupid Man.
August 8, 2004. Three Cheers for Samir!
August 12, 2004. Muqtada Al-Sadr: "Time out! Time out!"
August 13, 2004. Our Man "G" in the Belly of Najaf.
August 15, 2004. Muqtada Al-Sadr's Infantile Dysfunction.
August 16, 2004. Sheriff Lee C. Talks Straight.
August 26, 2004. The Arab Parallel Universe Triumphs Again! CP
August 27, 2004. End of the Road. CP
December 17, 2004. Make That "One Thousand and TWO nights."
December 18, 2004. Who Are the Insurgents in Iraq?
December 29, 2004. Khalid Jarrar to Iraqis: Don't Vote!
December 31, 2004. Speak, Wise Sandmonkey!

*

Selected Articles, Blog Entries, and Documents from 2004:

Zeyad Kasim, "An Iraqi Family's Tragedy," Healing Iraq, January 8, 2004. CP

Steven Vincent, "Bloody Ashura: An American at a deadly bombing in Iraq," National Review Online, March 5, 2004.

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, "'This is the only fun the kids get - shooting at the US sitting ducks'," The Guardian, June 25, 2004.

Salam Pax, "Starting a petition to have Sadir in the next swim suit issue of [Nude & Hard]," Shut Up You Fat Whiner (website), August 12, 2004. (Salam Pax's response to Riverbend)

Zeyad Kasim, "Conspiracy Theories and the Ummah," Healing Iraq, September 16, 2004.

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, "In Hideout, Foreign Arabs Share Vision of 'Martyrdom'," Washington Post, November 9, 2004.

Steven Vincent, "The Power of Shame," National Review Online, December 13, 2004.

*

Selected Photographs and Videos:

PHOTOGRAPH: Muqtada al-Sadr.
VIDEO: Fallujah: Tankers Dream. Soldier-produced video from Operation Phantom Fury, Fallujah II.

*

Books Covering 2004:

Bing West, No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle of Fallujah (2005).

David Bellavia, House to House: An Epic Memoir of War (2007).

Patrick Cockburn, Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq (2008).

Donovan Campbell, Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood (2009).

*

Books Published in 2004:

Rick Atkinson, In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat.
David Zucchino, Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad.
John Keegan, The Iraq War.
Evan Wright, Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War.
Karl Zinsmeister, Dawn Over Baghdad: How the U.S. Military is Using Bullets and Ballots to Remake Iraq.
Jon Lee Anderson, The Fall of Baghdad.
Steven Vincent, In the Red Zone: A Journey into the Soul of Iraq.

*

A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2003

2009-04-25T06:33:00.000-07:00

Over the next six days, Iraqi Bloggers Central will be posting a review of the last six years in Iraq and the Iraqi blogosphere, starting today with a look back at 2003 and ending with 2008-9 on Thursday, April 30. On May 1, we will post our farewell entry.

Year in Review: 2003

In Iraq, the year 2003 was raw, uncertain, and violent. For Americans, the roots of the Iraq invasion lay in the past, back to the unfinished business of 1991 and to the multiple attacks in America on September 11, 2001. Many Iraqis had been silently waiting for the invasion with the hope that they would finally be rid of the tyrant Saddam Hussein, a figure who had even invaded their dreams, with people often afraid of cursing him in their sleep and being found out by the Mukhabarat. Some Iraqis wished that they had been strong enough themselves to remove him, but none knew how that would have been possible. At the same time, a sizable portion of Iraqis felt that Saddam Hussein was a hero or that Iraqis themselves were so fractious that they needed a tyrant like Saddam to keep them in line.

But everyone, no matter what their views on Saddam were, knew what was coming. On March 17, 2003, US President George Bush gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his two sons, Uday and Qusay, forty-eight hours to vacate Iraq. On March 19, 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom began. Contrary to many news reports, there was heavy and difficult fighting for the Coalition forces as they worked their way to Baghdad, but by the first days of April they were nearing the capital, and on April 9, 2003, the US Marines entered Firdus Square and helped Iraqi citizens pull down the iconic statue of Saddam. The events of that afternoon in the dusty square were broadcast live around the world.

From all reports, Iraqis were stunned by the events in April, not really knowing how to respond to Saddam's sudden departure. Some cried for joy, others cried tears of sorrow or grief, and some felt relieved and humiliated at the same time. For most Iraqis, who who had lived under a tyrant for so long, the basic question had to be, "Now what?" For many, the answer was a visceral urge to get something back for everything that had been taken away from them. According to many of the reports filed at that time, looting was often the first response. For many, it must have been a way for them to strike back at the police-state tyranny that they had lived under for so long. In many cases, the objects that were looted would never actually be used. For some, their actions made no logical sense, but the motives were elemental, far below concerns about utility.

Over the summer and into the fall, the members of the "deck of cards" -- the most-wanted senior officials of the the Baathist regime -- were rounded up or killed. On July 22, Uday and Qusay Hussein were killed in Mosul, and at the end of the year, on December 13, Saddam Hussein himself was captured in a spiderhole not far from his hometown of Tikrit. At the same time, intimations of what kind of violence lay ahead started making headlines. On August 19, the Baghdad headquarters of the UN was car-bombed, killing more than a dozen people, including the director, Sergio de Mello. It was the first large-scale suicide car-bombing, the calling card of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Ten days later, on August 29, 2003, two car bombs exploded outside the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, killing 83 people, one of them Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim.

In Anbar province, there were Saddam loyalists who wanted to carry his vision forward. Many of them felt that they hadn't been defeated because they hadn't in fact fought the Americans yet. They started to ambush American patrols and mortar American bases, slipping back into the populace whenever in danger of counter-attack. Meanwhile, Arabs from other countries, the jihadists, had started to flow into Iraq. They, too, wanted to see the destruction of the new government that was being formed in Iraq and bring death to the American troops. Over the next few years, this alliance between the local Anbar insurgents and the foreign jihadists would cost the lives of thousands of Iraqi citizens -- men, women, children, police officers, and soldiers.

*

New Iraqi Bloggers in 2003:

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad -- June, 2003.
Zainab (Real Women Online) -- June, 2003.
Nawar (Ishtar Talking) -- July, 2003.
Riverbend -- August, 2003.
Zeyad -- October, 2003.
Kurdo -- October, 2003.
Fayrouz -- October, 2003.
Ihath -- October, 2003
Omar, Mohammed, and Ali Fadhil -- November, 2003.
AYS -- November, 2003.
Hammorabi Sam -- November, 2003.
Alaa -- November, 2003.
Firas -- November, 2003.
Nabil -- November, 2003.
Jarrar Family -- December, 2003
Khalid Jarrar -- December, 2003.
Sarmad -- December, 2003.

Salam Pax (Salam al-Janabi), the Iraqi Ur-Blogger, began blogging in September, 2002, at "Where is Raed?" In 2003, a collection of his blog entries from before, during, and after the invasion of Iraq was published under the titles "The Baghdad Blog" (UK) and "Salam Pax: The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi" (US). In August, 2004, Salam started a new blog called "Shut Up You Fat Whiner." Over the next few years, Salam wrote articles for the Guardian and produced video pieces for BBC's "Newsnight." In 2007, he left Iraq. At the City University of London, Salam enrolled in a Master's program in International Journalism, receiving his degree in 2008. In January, 2009, he returned to Baghdad, where he has been blogging occasionally at his new blog, "Salam Pax: The Baghdad Blogger."

Others would follow Salam's lead after the fall of Baghdad, starting in the summer of 2003. The first was one of Salam's friends, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, writing at "G. in Baghdad." He stopped blogging after a few months in the summer of 2003 to concentrate on reporting and has since become a very good journalist, writing mostly for the Guardian. Like Salam Pax, he spends time both in London and in Baghdad. He is currently reporting from Baghdad.

On June 27, 2003, Salam Pax directed his readers to an entry from a woman named Zainab, the first female Iraqi to step into the blogosphere:

ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Iraqi WOMAN blogger Zainab.
Zainab has posted her first entry on [realwomenonline.com], she is not one of my friends and I have only met her two weeks ago, she found the idea of writing online interesting. I am eager to know what she will write as everyone else. go read her now.

Within hours, thousands of Salam Pax's readers followed his advice. At Real Women Online, Zainab wrote an entry that called for attacks on American forces. "I know that one day there will be a great revolution against the Americans," she wrote, "and now we have the first seeds of that revolution. [M]any Iraqi soldiers have demonstrated on [J]une 18th in front of ORHA(the republican palace) claiming their rights of either having salaries or retired." Because Real Women Online had a comments page, that allowed the first real debate to take place among commenters within the Iraqi blogosphere. Shanti, one of the founders of Real Women Online, wrote the following day:

Phew! It has not been easy so far, hosting the Iraqi lady at Real Women Online. It has also been fun and informative and exasperating :) I agree I was caught a little off-guard, since I was not expecting Zaineb to post for atleast another week or so. I realized something was up when I went to RWO as usual in the morning and saw there were 14 other people online with me. Of course, that was just the beginning. By the end of yesterday, we had 4000 unique visitors, 14000 page views, 6700 views on Zaineb’s post, over 240 comments (after I deleted more than 20, mind you - Ashwini deleted some too) and 30 users registered in one day.

Over the next few days, many more people would stop by, with the number of comments rising to close to a thousand, a harbinger of the high comment counts that would occur when, later in the year, other Iraqi bloggers began to enable comments pages. As far as I know, that was Zainab's only entry.

In July, Nawar (Ishtar Talking), a woman living in Basra, began blogging in Arabic; Salam Pax added English translations to her entries. Although she only wrote five entries -- three in July and two in August -- she spoke freely for the first time about her past and present as a woman in Basra, from a memory of a university professor who had urged her to be a "glorious woman" for the Ba'ath Party to thoughts while watching the looting at the Basra Sheraton.

Riverbend ("Baghdad Burning") began blogging at the end of the summer, on August 17, offering readers a critical and often embittered view of the new Iraq. She would go on to publish two books of collected blog entries, "Baghdad Burning" in 2005, and "Baghdad Burning II" in 2006. In 2007, Riverbend and her family left for Syria; she wrote her last blog entry on October 22, 2007.

In the fall a new group of bloggers started posting. Both Kurdo ("Kurdo's World") and Zeyad Kasim ("Healing Iraq") had enabled comments pages, which drew a lot of commenters to their blogs. Kurdo stopped blogging in December, 2005. Zeyad Kasim was one of several dentists among the Iraqi bloggers. He graduated from the Dentistry College at Baghdad University and had been working in Iraq for four years when he decided to come to New York to enter the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. After graduation, Zeyad worked for IraqSlogger. He is currently studying to certify himself as a dentist in the United States. Fayrouz, a Chaldean-Catholic from Basra, had graduated from Basra University in computer science and worked in Baghdad for several years before emigrating to Australia and then the United States. From Texas, she started blogging on the events happening in Iraq, and later she could often be found adding her thoughts to the debates on the comments pages.

In November the Fadhil brothers (Omar, Mohammed, and Ali) started "Iraq the Model." The blog entries at "Iraq the Model" were always thoughtful, well-reasoned, and engaging. Where Riverbend was pessimistic, the Fadhils were optimistic. Ali Fadhil eventually left the family blog and started his own blog, "Free Iraqi," while Omar and Mohammed continued posting at "Iraq the Model." Today Omar is living in New York, finishing his Master's Degree at Columbia University.

That same month Hammorabi Sam and Alaa started blogging. Hammorabi Sam, whom I knicknamed "Yosemite Sam" because of his ornery, shoot-first temper, initially thanked and championed the Coalition forces for overthrowing Saddam Hussein, but he later became a virulent hater of the American forces in Iraq. Alaa, loved by many of us for his wisdom and ability to take the long view, blogged irregularly for several years, eventually moving with his family to Canada.

AYS, a dentist like Zeyad Kasim and Omar Fadhil, also began blogging in November. After Saddam Hussein's execution two years later, AYS would write his last post for almost a couple years. In that last post, he worried that Iraq was becoming an "Islamic Republic" run by Shiites. AYS then left Iraq, lived for a while on an unnamed island in the Mediterranean and then for a time in the United Kingdom, before getting a visa to the United States, arriving here in October, 2008.

Finally, in December, four members of the Jarrar family -- Faiza, the mother, and her three sons, Raed, Khalid, and Majed -- began writing at "A Family in Baghdad." Like Riverbend, the Jarrars had not enabled a comments page. People who wanted to respond to their entries were not able to, which led to the creation of the original "Cry Me a Riverbend" blog. When "Cry Me a Riverbend" was shut down, "Iraqi Bloggers Central" was started to take its place.

*

Part One. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2003.
Part Two. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2004.
Part Three. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2005.
Part Four. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2006.
Part Five. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2007.
Part Six. A Look Back at Iraq and the Iraqi Blogosphere: 2008-09.

*

Selected Articles, Blog Entries, and Documents from 2003:

CP = Check the comments page for that blog entry.

Salam Pax, "Pool Side at Hamra," Where is Raed? (website), May 23, 2003.

Peter Maass, "Salam Pax Is Real," Slate, June 2, 2003.

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, "[One two one two...test test]," G. in Baghdad (website), June 25, 2003.

Riverbend, "About Riverbend," Baghdad Burning (website), August 24, 2003.

Riverbend, "National Day," Baghdad Burning (website), August 26, 2003.

Riverbend, "Sheikhs and Tribes," Baghdad Burning (website), September 29, 2003.

Zeyad Kasim, "Muqtada Al-Sadr," Healing Iraq (website), October 18, 2003.

Zeyad Kasim, "A Little Something about the War," Healing Iraq (website), October 18, 2003.

AYS, "Your Rights Are Kept," Iraq at a Glance (website), November 10, 2003.

Mohammed Fadhil, "You Owe Us an Apology," Iraq the Model (website), November 17, 2003.

Omar Fadhil, "Let Me Be Your Eyes, Healing Iraq, November 21, 2003.

Riverbend, "The Latest," Baghdad Burning (website), December 16, 2003.

Ali Fadhil, "We Don't Need Another Hero," Healing Iraq (website), December 25, 2003. CP (Mister Ghost, Jeffrey, Lee C., and Michael Cosyns)

AYS, "Something about Basrah," Iraq at a Glance (website), December 28, 2003.

*

Selected Photographs and Videos:

VIDEO: "Shock and Awe." March 21, 2003.
VIDEO: Saddam Hussein walking in Baghdad during war. The crowd is chanting, "Bil rooh, bil daam, nafdeek ya Saddam." With life, with blood, we sacrifice for Saddam.
VIDEO: Thunder Run. April 5, 2003. Task Force 1-64 Armor, U.S. Army's Third Infantry Division; 29 tanks and 14 Bradley Armored Fighting Vehicles.
VIDEO: Mohammed Al-Sahaf (Baghdad Bob).
VIDEO: Announcement of the Capture of Saddam Hussein: We Got Him!
PHOTOGRAPH: Saddam Hussein, December 13, 2003.

*

Books Covering 2003:

Salam Pax, Salam Pax: The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi (2003).

Ray L. Smith and Bing West, The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the First Marine Division (2003).

Jon Lee Anderson, The Fall of Baghdad (2004).

David Zucchino, Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad (2004).

Evan Wright, Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War (2004).

Steven Vincent, In the Red Zone: A Journey into the Soul of Iraq (2004).

Anthony Shadid, Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War (2005).

Michael Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor, Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (2006).

Ray LeMoine, Jeff Newmann, and Donovan Webster, Babylon by Bus (2006).

Jo Wilding, Don't Shoot the Clowns: Taking a Circus to the Real Iraq (2006)

*

Books Published in 2003:

Christopher Cerf and Micah L. Sifray, The Iraq War Reader: History, Documents, Opinions.
Ray L. Smith and Bing West, The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the First Marine Division.
Bill Katorsky and Timothy Carlson, Embedded: The Media at War.
Karl Zinsmeister, Boots on the Ground: A Month with the 82nd Airborne in the Battle for Iraq.
Salam Pax, Salam Pax: The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi.
Anne Garrels, Naked in Baghdad: The Iraq War as Seen by NPR's Correspondent.
Williamson Murray and Robert Scales, The Iraq War: A Military History.
Paul McGeough, In Baghdad: A Reporter's War.

*

So Long!

2009-04-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

So, it's pencils-down for IBC. There's so much more I could write, if only I had the time and the muse. For example: how I've arranged the who, what, how, and why of the war in my own mind, who Bruno the Souff Afrikan is, top three guesses for Layla Anwar's familial relationship to Saddam Hussein, and personal well wishes to the Iraqi bloggers and commenters who've made this quite an interesting ride, indeed.

Corey, sorry I didn't get to the new Iraqi blogger election! Truth be told, I spent most of the nights this week in the garage changing the rear trailing arm bushings on mein auto, and the rest of my time trying to recover from same! So how about I just appoint Touta as Queen of Iraq instead? Can anyone beat her dancing teddy bear, really?

And to Jeffrey- thanks for maintaining this site and inviting me to contribute to it!

I leave you now with two of my favorite cheesy pics.

First, the go-to pic announcing victory over Bruno (Chief Chaos-Monger, if you don't know him):

And second, an artist's conception of Layla Anwar that accompanied most of my posts about her:

So long, y'all! See ya in the comments!

Whatever Happened to the Iraqi Blogs?

2009-04-24T20:33:00.000-07:00

1) Blogs are old school. The era of people quitting the jobs in hopes of becoming full-time bloggers has past. Also, the parody of left-wing bloggers seeking to save the world through blogging has helped the reputation of the medium.

2) Iraqis have a lot less time. My most fruitful blogging periods were during months when I was working out-of-town. When I came back to my family, I was still interested in what was going on, but I no longer had time to record my ideas and questions. In the hey-day of Iraqi blogging, there was a hot war going on. People had fewer places to go and hanging out was difficult. AQI targeted public locations where people gathered. So, Iraqis had a lot of time to think and a lot of time to put their thoughts into their blogs.

Ironically, Iraqi blogs are much more valuable now that international media have become less interested in what is going on in Iraq. Also, bloggers can actually get out and see what they are blogging about. They can actually go out and ask people questions. It would be a shame to see the blogs pass away just as they are.

3) A.P.U. The inability of Arab bloggers to break free of the A.P.U. has made many Iraqi blogs pointless. They are just rehashes of Riverbend's unrelenting doleful drone: The C.I.A. invented Saddam (Not that RB would have anything bad to say about Saddam). America overthrew Saddam to steal from us and control us. The C.I.A. invented Al-Qaeda in Iraq. America caused everything bad that has happened in Iraq or will happen (probably on purpose).

4) Nothing happened to them. I'm old and unwilling to change. Blogging is not on the decline. I'm just unable to appreciate the new blogs, the new reasons people blog, and the new things that Iraqi bloggers blog about. I'm like a middle-aged guy who says ZZ Top is the greatest band in the world because that's what he listened to high school; but, of course, all the new music is "so lame".

Top 10 Best Iraqi Bloggers of All Time

2009-04-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

This is a list of my favorite Iraqi bloggers of all time. These are the bloggers that (at this time) I would want to exist if there could have only been 10 since 2002. Some of these are no longer posting, yet I still go back and re-read their posts. If I had compiled this list 3 years ago, it would have been different. Some bloggers who I once considered indispensable have, frankly, began phoning it in. I mean, you know exactly what they will say before they say it. Some of them began phoning it in from a very scary place (Hammorabi & Ladybird).

This is list is not based on readership. It is based on the sustained quality and reliability of the posts. With the exception of #1, the ordering of these bloggers is a *little* random. You should consider a blogger within three slots of each other to be of comparable esteem.

Put your own top 10 list in the comments. Mine is an English-language only list, but I'd welcome a list of Arabic-language Iraqi blogs.

1) Ali Fadhil (Free Iraqi)

I recommend that a reader of Iraqi blogs read every post in this defunct blog before proceeding to the rest. It will help you tell the difference between "shit and Shinola".
Ali is the brother of the Iraq the Model boys and a former contributor there. He's a pediatrician. An ethnic Sunni Arab who married into a Shi'a family.

At ITM, Ali was the first Iraqi blogger to call out Riverbend for "lying", and the first to indirectly identify Juan Cole's deficiencies regarding the history of Iraq.

The ignorant spread a rumor that he quit ITM because he disagreed with his brothers' political positions on Iraq. The truth is what he stated here:

I did not quit because of any distrust of America's plans in Iraq, I was not treated badly by any American, I have no problem with any right-wing blog and I never had any problem in dealing with extreme left blogs.

Ali would later explain that he was frustrated with the lack of fruitful discourse that Iraqi blogs had accomplished up to that point between right-wing and left-wingers, between "pro-American" and "anti-imperialists". Judge for yourself if he succeeded.

2) Hayder Al-Khoei (Eye Raki)

It is not often you get to read a blog by a "player"...someone in a position to know more about what is really going on than the average dentist (no offense intended toward plethora of Iraqi dentists who have run really great blogs.)

Hayder is the grandson of Ayatollah Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei, the predecessor of Sistani. His uncle was assassinated by Saddam. And the day after Saddam fell, a well-armed Sadrist mob assaulted and assassinated his father at the Imam Ali shrine (see Hayder's post on this). It is believed they were operating directly under Muqtada Al-Sadr's orders. Ironically, this is the very shrine where the Sadrists held up in August 2004 declaring that destroying them there would be a desecration.Hayder is as close to an expert blogger you are likely to find on issues relating to Najaf. When Sadr temporarily returned to Najaf in 2007, Hayder was blogging on it while the rest of the national media was clueless.

3) Salam Pax (Where Is Raed?), (Shut Up You Big Fat Whiner), (The Bagdad Blogger), (Salam on Twitter)

Granted, for a long time Salam has not posted as often as we would want and for long periods his posts did not have the solid content we wanted. But this is a "life-time" acheivement slot. When Salam Pax nails it, he hits it out of the park.

His original site is useful on many levels and defective too. It is useful because it he is the only Iraqi blogger posting on the Saddam days. Also, it was where other Iraqi bloggers made their first appearance: Raed Jarrar, Ghaith Abdul Ahad (G in Baghdad), Riverbend.

It is defective for it's lacunas. At one point in 2002, Salam Pax got nervous about Saddam's secret police closing in on him and entirely erased his blog entries. Then years later, Raed Jarrar (who was a co-blogger with Salam) carefully edited his best and most revealing posts for fear they would prevent him getting a visa to the United States which that Boot-licker of Imperialists was desperate to gain.

I've never understood why Salam felt the need to start whole new blogs rather than just rebranding his old ones.

Lately he's been strolling down memory lane at his current blog: examining the period before, during, and after the invasion of 2003. I'd say that is a significant bell-weather that the days of strife are wrapping up in Iraq. And of course he is leading the pack of Iraqi bloggers in his use of Twitter.

4) Omar and Mohammed (Iraq The Model)

For a long time, these guys were THE breath of fresh air among Iraqi bloggers posting from Iraq. Although Arabs, they did not feel the need to bow to A.P.U.* They never portrayed themselves or their fellow Iraqis as victims. Their posts are practical. They don't shake their fist at the U.S. to gain credibility. Consequently, they haven't posted things that they have to (or ought to) apologize for later. And no other blogger has trudged on after receiving so many arrows in their backs from other Iraqi bloggers.
Note: The term "Arab Parallel Universe" was coined by Jeffrey and defined by the Egyptian, Sandmonkey, here.

For example, when the Lancet Report came out just prior to the U.S. 2006 mid-term elections, they were the only Iraqi bloggers at the time recognize that how and why the report's authors were inflating the deaths of Iraqis for benefit of a FOREIGN political conflict (the American elections):

They shamelessly made an auction of our blood, and it didn’t make a difference if the blood was shed by a bomb or a bullet or a heart attack because the bigger the count the more useful it becomes to attack this or that policy in a political race and the more useful it becomes in cheerleading for murderous tyrannical regimes.

Abbas of Catharsis (at the time, he was Konfused Kid) fished for disparaging opinions of the ITM guys from other Iraqi bloggers. If you don't know it, this is the favorite method of those without the FACTS to support their opinions: rather than debate the issue, you attempt to manufacture an environment of contempt toward the opposition. Most the his responses were quite hostile:

"...traitor...holocaust denier...nonsense...anti-rational dialogue people...like the Baathist apologist that they so despise...shameful...they are dying for an asylum in USA..." (this blog has been closed)

Abbas called them:

"...just an inbred propaganda machine, if this is not crossing the line, then I don't know what is...an example of the mentality that currently prevails the Green Zone, nervous Iraqis who just want to make a few bucks by catering to an audience and telling them what they want to hear."

When the study was found to be a farce, not one of these bloggers --including Abbas-- apologized (surprise!).

When an Iraqi blogger claims to call it like he sees it without concern for what others think, just know that these guys are the standard (the model if you will) for that kind of ballsy posting.

5) Nibras Kazimi (Talisman Gate) and IraqPundit

These guys are sooo informative, so dead-on, and so linked in my heart that for me they are like a single blog, because I love them for the same reasons. I have called IraqPundit my twin by another mother. He always seems to be thinking what I was thinking and then has the temerity to explain it better. If these guys have spoken on a subject and you haven't read their post, then you are under-informed. Incidentally, these were the only bloggers contacted by Abbas (Konfused Kid) who recognized from the outset that the Lancet Study was bogus.

6) Sami (Skies)
An Iraqi psychiatrist. It's really not my "kind" of blog. So why can I not look away??

7) Iraq Blog Count
This blog is posted by Abbas Hawazin from Catharsis, Salam Adil from Asterism, and that lying weasel Khalid Jarrar. Salam's blog made #9 on this list. Abbas can be a jerk, but I can't help but like him. Khalid is a lying sack. But they all do a very good job of keeping on top of new Iraqi blogs, including those in Arabic.

8) Iraq Mojo
This blog has the most productive comment section right now. I only wish Mojo would do more commentary the way he used to.

9) Salam Adil (Asterism)
I'm listing this blog solely for it's occasional round-ups of Iraqi blogs on selected issues, which is dependably comprehensive

10) Alaa (The Mesopotamian)
He doesn't post much anymore, but when he shoots he kills.

Get Yer IBC Swag!!

2009-04-23T00:20:00.000-07:00

Finally! Not another day needs to go by for you without having your very own Qom Qommunity Qollege Beer Stein, IBC onesy for your young 'uns, or Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri personal ad V-neck tee for your sweetie! Make thee haste to the

Iraqi Bloggers Central Souvenir Swag shop !!

IBC's Improbable History

2009-04-21T07:05:00.000-07:00

UPDATES IN RED
Let's take a ride in the Wayback Machine. I've written two posts (that I remember) on how it all started. In my post, The Original CMAR and his boy Jeffrey, I recapped the events surrounding the birth of IBC: to wit, the closing of the old Cry Me A Riverbend blog in May of 2004.

The original CMAR's site was intended to provide a central location for CMAR and and his readers to comment about blogs like Riverbend's and the Faiza Jarrar blog and those of her boys, none of which (at the time) provided comments. ...The blog's comments were a random, free-swinging environment. I remember commenters like Original Jeff, DL, Bruno, and Leap Frog. But there was also this one totally mad S.O.B. Jeffrey -- New York, who stood out, even at CMAR's blog for his craziness and profanity.

Now a gang of thugs that didn't like CMAR's opinions, pieced together some of his references about himself and figured out who he was. Then they posted his address and place of work in the comments of the CMAR blog and in those of left-wing freak blogs. So CMAR decided the pleasure he got from his blog was no longer worth the risk. He shut it down.

They received many friendly "attaboys" at the freak blogs, including a special post from Raed Jarrar praising their success. ...About 3 hours after the CMAR blog went down, I read about it, and immediately opened Cry Me A Riverbend II for no other reason than that I hate bullies. I sent an email to CMAR telling him about it and learned that Jeffrey -- New York had done the same thing for the same reason about 1 hour earlier.

I founded the Cry Me A Riverbend II blog with the idea that I would do everything to remain totally anonymous. Without a public identity, ...no one could ever find a lever to make me shut down. Jeffrey took the opposite tack. His identity was already known, and when the punks tried to do to him what they did to CMAR, his response was "Bring it on".
That was almost four years ago. Now IBC is a major gateway drug to Iraqi blogs in English.

Four months later, Jeffrey shut down IBC in protest of the decision to let Muckty Al Sadr weasel out of the trap he had made for himself. In that post (End of the Road) he gave his reasons for starting IBC:

First, I wanted to offer people a place where they could comment on the posts of those Iraqi Bloggers who refused to enable comments pages... This had already been started by Cry Me a Riverbend, but when he shut his site down due to death threats I decided to throw up a quick blog to carry the baton.
Second, I wanted to create a blog that gave English-speakers an overview of the Iraqi Bloggers and add links to any articles that I thought would help us in our debates.
Third, I wanted to try to force the two sides of the Iraqi Bloggers -- the pro- and anti-Coalition Iraqi Bloggers -- to engage in a real debate about issues. This didn't happen.

I plan to post on Jeffrey's conclusion to his third post next.

When he returned, I welcomed it with the following post at Cry Me A Riverbend II: Dr Evil Restarts His War Machine

Once there was a boy named Jeffrey -- New York. Jeffrey enjoyed posting to the comments sections of Iraq-related bloggers. His comments were strange, outrageous, and hostile. Reading them was like injecting your brain with epoxy until it congealed and then stretching it out at arms length. They also had the added nutritious value of being mostly dead-on true. I tend to be anal retentive. But Jeffrey would never retain his anus. His anus ran about totally without retention.
[...]
Blogging changed Jeffery. His blog posts became increasingly more lucid and straightforward. People remarked that it was hard to imagine that it was truly the same person that had posted the bizarre cursing responses in the comments sections.
[...]
But recently...maybe it was Raed's decision to provide comments on his blog....Jeffery emerged from his spiderhole into the Comment sections. At first it was Blogger Jeffrey. the reasonable critiquer of Iraqi opinion. But soon.... Comment Jeffrey was back!
"EVERYONE JOIN IN! SLIP ON YOUR BLACK PAJAMAS! HOIST THE FAMILY AK! LET'S ALL DO THE AK-DANCE! DANCE! DANCE! DANCE! "Hey, there's Al-Jazeera! We're going to be on TV!" DANCE! (He he.)
Jeffrey -- New York"

"I would say pull your panties out of the crack of your ass, but I don't think they make panties with burlap.He he.
Jeffrey -- New York"

And then, it happened. In response to someone's comment about Jeffrey's silenced blog, he wrote:

"Yes, I can think of a few others besides yourself who sighed with relief when I suspended major operations, unfurled my "Successful Evisceration" banner, and flew onto that floating carrier in my crotch-itching flight suit. However, I wonder if you have seen any of the Austin Powers flicks? If I resemble anyone on this beauteous orb it would be Doctor Evil. Drip. Drip. Drip. Oh-oh. It seems I'm starting to thaw.
Jeffrey -- New York"
Dr. Evil's war machine is now up again and thrumming like a planet-sized kitten.

Since then, a lot of established Iraqi bloggers such as Fayouz and Iraqi Mojo were commenters here before they were bloggers. So congratulations to Jeffrey and IBC for 5 years of promoting and commenting on Iraqi bloggers!

Greetings From Austin, TX

2009-04-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

Capitol of Texas Bridge

Austin, TX is a city of extremes and extremists.

It's famously politically liberal, filled with loopy cranks debilitated by the worst ravages of Bush Derangement Syndrome.

But it has just as many libertarian, 911-Truthers planning for the next Camp Davidian siege. And of course they hate each other.

And Travis county is beseiged on all side by traditional Texas Conservative counties whatever that means. Texas is a reliably Republican state but until 1968 they were yellow-dog Democrats. But they were not big supporters of President FDR's social reforms...except among the UT professors and state workers here in Austin, I suppose (which was how nearly everyone in town was employed back then). The Texas reps walked out of the 1930 Democratic convention. And now they are grouchy supporters of Republicans. But during both eras, their politicians managed to ensconse themselves into the seats of power in the Federal legislature.

In 1968, a nut set up a sniper-nest in the U.T. Tower from which he could see the whole city at that time. He killed 14 people. After that, the nanny-state city council shut down the tower for 30 years. Conversely, when a nut drove a truck into the Luby's in Killeen (less than 1 hour north of here) and killed 23 people, the diner was reopened in a week. The response of the Texas legislature was to pass a law permitting Texans to carry concealed handguns.
Now it costs $10/person to go to the top of the reopened tower.
At that price, I ought to be allowed to bring a rifle.

Texas is the only state that was a sovereign country (for just a few years) before it became a state. Perhaps you've heard, our governor recently suggested that Texas might choose to leave the Union. A recent poll discovered that 75% of Texans would not choose to leave the U.S. Which means that 1 in 4 Texans WOULD choose to leave the U.S. if given the opportunity. I think the percentage might be a little higher in the Austin area. Or maybe not. We had a large influx of Californians and Yankees during the last 20 years.

There is a lot of tension about what is the real Austin Way. It's a youngish city due to the large number of college students (50, 000 at U.T. alone in a metro area of 1.5 million). So, many people like to brag about how much exercise they get at the many urban parks.

But there are probably more with guts over-hanging their belts who see true Austin culture centered around discovering the best way to prepare barbeque.
But everyone agrees about Willie Nelson.
Austin has been branding itself (relatively recently) as the Live Music Capitol of America. But it's full of nanny-staters who are busy imposing draconian noise ordinances on out-door venues. This strikes me peculiar since downtown Austin has working railroad running through those same Austin neighborhoods.

While my immediate family are Texans, I was born and reared on the banks of Lake Erie. So I think I have special insight into Texan psyche.

Texans are like New Yorkers (so naturally they don't get each other). They don't want to live anywhere but here and they can't imagine why YOU would want to either. Not that they want you to come. Texans see themselves as singular and unique, and in seeing themselves that way they are. All this is exactly the opposite of Ohio (by the way). They do not see this as putting-on-airs (which Texans loathe); it's just a self-evident fact. In those ways, Texas is to the United States what the U.S. is to the rest of the world.

Enchanted Rock.
You can't get the sense of scale from any photograph.
It takes about 1/2 hour to walk up it from the base.

And yet, they are very friendly. Endemically friendly.The following are the big cities in Texas:

Houston
Dallas
Fort Worth
San Antonio
El Paso
Austin

Of these cities, Austin is the friendliest (smaller towns are friendlier), yet it is also the most insular. In Texas, a 3 1/2 hour drive is your basic long drive. It's the farthest you would probably drive to spend the day somewhere and then turn around and go home. However, until about 20 years ago, if an Austinite were going to take highway I-35 fifteen miles north of downtown, you might as well have been driving 2 hours to Waco. Those who have lived here all their lives view those who have came here 40 years ago as intruders who will never understand the real Austin that they killed when they came. And if you came here 15 years ago, well, you just arrived a little too late to discover the Austin that vanished when you entered the city limits. I feel the same way. I remember when you didn't need to sell your car to buy Austin City Limits tickets and when decent SXSW tickets were for the locals and not California celebrities and you weren't herded like the cattle in Red River. I'm here. Now somebody shut the door.

My dog

How does this relate to Iraqi bloggers? Not very much. There's really nothing in a Texan worldview that can relate to that of Iraqis, I think...except for one thing: hospitality and generosity. I've had the opportunity to sup at restaurants with more Iraqis over the last 6 years than I ever imagined I would. The only people I have seen fight over the check more tenuously than Texans are Iraqis. Give it up. You will not win.

Remember the Alamo!

The Defenestration of Comrade Nir Rosen

2009-04-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

For the last few years As'ad AbuKhalil, the Arab Cali-Bungalow Marxist (originally from Lebanon), and Nir Rosen, the American Schoolboy Anti-Imperialist (whose mother is Jewish and who has a long personal history with Israel -- see his article: "This Broken Home: Revisiting Israel"), have been very chummy. As'ad and Nir found out that they both shared the same target of intense hatred: America. Since then, they've been e-mailing each other regularly, with As'ad often posting Nir's tips and quotes over at his Angry Arab website, appending "thanks Nir" to the end of each arrow shot at the hegemonic American hyperpower.

One of the highlights of their friendship would have to be from the spring of 2008 when Nir Rosen testified about the situation in Iraq before a Congressional committee. After Nir peddled his usual no-hope/all-chaos line of argument, he was asked by then-Senator Biden what the Americans ought to do, then, in Iraq. In this blog entry, As'ad AbuKhalil excerpted the following from Nir's response:

BIDEN: Based on what you’ve said, there’s really no hope — we really should get the hell out of there right now. I mean, there’s nothing to do. Nothing.

ROSEN: As a journalist, I’m uncomfortable advising an imperialist power about how to be a more efficient imperialist power. And I don’t think that we’re there for the interest of the Iraqi people. I don’t think that’s ever been a motivation. […]

BIDEN: [If we withdraw], the good news is we wouldn’t be imperialists in Iraq, from your perspective.

ROSEN: Only elsewhere in the region. (laughter). … There’s no positive scenario in Iraq these days. Not every situation has a solution.

[the bolding is in As'ad AbuKhalil's original post]

The two Marxists could not have been more pleased with themselves. Over the last year, then, the "thanks Nir" nods from As'ad AbuKhalil continued to flow over at the Angry Arab website. But then, a few weeks ago, something terrible happened. Nir Rosen, back in Iraq to search for more meat to stuff into his Anti-Imperialist Meatgrinder, did something he is actually quite capable of doing from time to time: opening his eyes and just reporting on what he sees. And in the article Nir wrote ("The Gathering Storm"), As'ad AbuKhalil detected a few suspect sentences. On Saturday, April 11, 2009, in an entry entitled "Fashionably dressed," As'ad excerpted and commented:

"The girls at Baghdad’s universities are dressing more fashionably than ever before, while young men have adopted the trendy styles common in Lebanon." OK, Nir. Tell me what what you are trying to say here? Is that an indication of progress and enlightenment or is it a measure of freedom. Help me here, please. (thanks Jonathan)

On Monday, April 13, As'ad posted an entry that featured the e-mail exchange between himself, Nir, and a guy named Amer ("Nir is unhappy"). First let's hear from Nir Rosen:

look you nitpicking grump, the point i was making was clear. it had nothing to do with progress or enlightenment or even freedom, it had to do with the level of comfort people had in public in baghdad. i specifically referred to "the random violence that once took anyone and everyone as its target" its the same point i make when i refer to new restaurants or people driving expensive cars, it has strictly to do with the level of security and the reduced fear of rampant criminal gangs. thats why i also say "women in immodest dress risked being killed while men sporting western fashions were asking to be beaten. Today men congregate in newly opened bars, a sign, at least, that vigilante extremists have stopped blowing them up." these are real changes that happened, and they do mean something, even if its a fragile and temporary change, as i make clear in the article.

Amer responds:

It is not nitpicking, it is actually a critique of your naive view of such matters: no Nir, it means nothing that there is an explosion in conspicuous consumption and that the newly rich in Iraq can now exhibit their wealth in walled neighborhoods. When the US and the Iraqi government want to promote a narrative that justifies their past actions and legitimizes their existence, they want you to only look at such phenomena and see in them a sign of some form of "success."

Ah yes, that damned "explosion of conspicuous consumption." The horror! How could Nir let his reporting get in the way of his critique of the IMPERIALIST NARRATIVE?! Nir fires back at Amer:

i mention that violence is down and people are able to move about with somewhat more freedom but the entire article is about how despite that all iraqis are traumatized, most of the millions of displaced iraqis are too scared to go home, sectarianism still persists among the security forces, torture and ransom are routine, the americans are still rounding up iraqis and even killing innocent ones, so i hardly think my acknowledgment that there is in fact a reduction in random violence in baghdad justifies anybody else's narrative if you read the entire article. i stress that point by adducing my friend who says "all of this is a lie" the article if anything is a tour of a traumatized iraqi population, which is why i say "Travelling around Iraq six years “after the fall”, as Iraqis say, one encounters a deeply wounded people. None were spared from the violence." and then i give examples. i dont think you read the entire article if you can misconstrue one line like that.

Nir argues that his article still fits the line he's been pushing since his arrival in Iraq, that Iraqis are a destroyed people and there is no hope for them, even if on the surface violence is down and they appear to be getting on with life. It is another chapter, he says, in the IMPERIALIST NARRATIVE. But for Amer and As'ad, it is not enough, one imagines. Nir is no longer the Loyal Comrade he once was. By even suggesting some improvement in Iraq, Nir has now cut himself off from the True Ideologues and Bungalow Marxists of the Left.

*

Previous IBC entries on Nir Rosen:

The Education of Nir Rosen. (Jeffrey)

Nir Rosen's Fistful of Dollars. (Jeffrey)

Kagan versus Rosen on the 'Surge.' (///RhusLancia)

*

P.S. Nir, I know you'll read this, so if you're interested in publishing As'ad's responses to you, you have my e-mail address.

P.P.S. A hat-tip of my own to Iraqi Mojo for first pointing out this cat-fight over at Angry Arab.

*

UPDATE: Nir Rosen and I are currently exchanging e-mails about this new blog entry. He objected to my previous characterization of him as a "Jew." I asked him if it weren't true that his mother is Jewish. He said that his mother is indeed Jewish (and Israeli) but that his father is not. Nir says that his background has nothing to do with his work as a journalist. I'm waiting to hear back from him and then will edit this entry accordingly.

UPDATE II: Nir Rosen and I have exchanged a few more e-mails. I am now satisfied that everything factual about Nir in the above entry has been verified by Nir himself. My interpretation, of course, I myself stand behind.

*

Shaggy's Farm

2009-04-16T19:56:00.000-07:00

Down on the farm in Shamiya, Shaggy has been struggling with more than just poor internet connections. First of all, his Dad left a backlog of accounts that needs to be taken care of. Second, there are two brothers who have built nice houses on Shaggy's land, and now he needs to ask them to either sign a rental contract or remove themselves from his property. And third, there's that damned sand in his piss (Eating Lots of Halloumi):

I did go back to the doctor after finishing my prescription and after some persistence on my behalf I got him to tell me what the heck was wrong with me... Yes! I am stupid to have had unprotected sex with a prostitute... I contracted chlamydia from the woman. The doctor gave me a bunch more antibiotics, some pills to treat the 'sand' in my pee (an early sign of kidney stones) and told me not to worry and to come back in a month. I've got to insist on getting a culture test next time to make sure it's gone.

On Fridays Shaggy makes it back to Baghdad for drinks and burgers with Od, and even a little hash:

One day, Od got his hands on a tiny bit of hash the other day. We smoked a joint from it on his roof. The sun was quite warm that afternoon and the hash was rather good. There's definitely something nice about getting high in the sun and it's strange how I feel more comfortable with myself when I'm high and I'm not so grumpy either (something my dad thinks is a result of sexual frustration). If only I could get things done whilst high, but I can't.

It's nice to see at least two Iraqi dudes enjoying the nice weather while getting blasted on a Baghdad rooftop.

*

Whether it's a true metric of improvement in Iraqi or not I can't say, but Eye Raki writes about witnessing something unusual in Iraq (Dogs & Politics):

Last week just on the outskirts of Diwaniya I saw something very weird. I knew there was something different about Iraq the moment I set foot on its soil. I could smell it in the air and I could see it on the faces of the people. But what I saw was my first proper sign. Near a police checkpoint a stray dog ran up to an officer, careful not to be within kicking distance, and wagged its tail. The officer who was enjoying a sandwich threw it on the floor and gave the dog a snack. For those that remember, there used to be special curfews in place not to curb suicide car bombs and terrorism but to give police space for their periodic dog culling. Sometimes all you can hear is a single shot and silence, but sometimes after the bang comes the moaning and agonizing cries and you just know the dog is bleeding to death. In anycase this time the dog was not given poisoned meat or thrown into a cage as food for the big cats. It was a nice thing to see.

*

Last week, in the NYTimes Baghdad Bureau Blog, Sahar S. Gabriel began writing about her impressions upon arriving here in the US. We linked to that first entry, and yesterday she posted her second (New in America: Exploring), which begins:

I have been here for more than 10 days and I still have not come to understand the American spirit of friendliness, especially amongst themselves. The concept of strangers having a whole conversation from a “Hello” or “Is that chowder soup you have there?” is just fascinating.

I take a step back and observe this phenomenon of almost instant cordiality. Perhaps I’m not quite the social animal myself, but strangers don’t swap recipes in elevators or go on about their children in a Target counter line, at least not where I come from.

*

UPDATE: Over at Iraq Blog Updates, Ibrahim takes a look at Micho's options for locating housing in Iraq. If she can't find anything, Ibrahim suggests, she can always relocate to the marshes:

You don't need money or a job to live in the Marsh Arabs.It's FREE! All what Micho needs to do is going there to actually build her own Sumerian style house and start fishing together with her fiancé. They just have to fully integrete into the 5,000-year-old culture of the Madan, descended from the Sumerians who established humankind's first civilization, and to do so they may need to buy a (Jamousah) buffalo and try to learn how to milk her every day.

That makes me wonder if there is an Iraqi TV version of "Green Acres." Or maybe "The Beverly Hillbillies," with Marsh Arabs moving into a mansion in Baghdad. I imagine their Granny would know how to use a shotgun, too.

*

Greetings from Phoenix, Arizona, USA!

2009-04-13T00:42:00.000-07:00

Wow. How 'bout that war, eh? I'm glad it's finally starting to look like Iraq will succeed, although it seems the self-identifying "Resistance" still has some car bombs and suicide bombings left in them, unfortunately. Hopefully the Iraqi government will get their act together, or will be democratically replaced in a few months by one that will, and the brave Iraqi police and Iraqi army will earn and keep the peace without resorting to the ways and means of the dark days pre- April '03. Insha'allah and godspeed!

With the curtains coming down on IBC in the coming weeks, I thought I'd follow Jeffrey's lead and tell you some about my stomping grounds. I apologize in advance if you are on dialup!

Here is a table comparing Iraq with Arizona:

The greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area, where I live, has about three million people (from memory) compared to Baghdad's roughly five million. Here's a Google Earth comparison of the relative sizes:

Note that the climate in Phoenix closely resembles that in Baghdad, but I'll leave it to you to look it up to compare & contrast. Just know that if it's hot in Baghdad on a particular day, chances are it's just as hot here! Our power is reliable though. The travel discussion that Jeffrey's very interesting Iowa post(s) triggered pulled out an interesting bit by Marxus, the Swedish commenter. He noted (paraphrasing from memory!) that he's driven through Arizona and found it OK, except for the Grand Canyon which truly has to be seen. Yes, absolutely, the Grand Canyon needs to be seen in person by anyone passing through. And I understand that if someone takes the I-40 through Arizona from left to right, or right to left, they will remember it best as time spent getting to somewhere else. If you ventured just a bit off the road, however, you could visit the Petrified Forest National Park or Painted Desert along the way.

The Painted Desert

Arizona actually has a wide range of ecological regions including low desert (of course), high desert, pinon juniper, and ponderosa pine forests. If you went from bottom to top or top to bottom you'd likely cross all these regions. You could also see some very interesting archaelogical sites, like Montezuma's Castle National Monument, a sort of apartment building built in pre-Columbian times, which is just off the road. If you were more adventurous, you could head up to the Four Corners region and buy made-in-China Indian turquoise jewelry in four states at once! This area, too, is peppered with archaelogical sites, including the Mesa Verde National Park (in Colorado) that puts Montezuma's Castle to shame.

Montezuma's Castle

Bet you didn't know Arizona even has an ocean!

///RhusLancia, III and ///RhusLancia, Jr contemplate AZ's ocean

Just kidding. That's the Atlantic. We do have lakes though:

Look Jeffrey! We have farms too!

Friend of ///RhusLancia, Jr. and ///RhusLancia, Jr. pick their pumkins

And streams...

Over the bow

Snow...

///RhusLancia, Jr in the snow as a wee lad (don't worry- he looks totally different now)

Snakes... !

Friend of ///RhusLancia (l) captured a snake in the dez', displays it to ///RhusLancia,

///RhusLancia, Jr, and Friend of ///RhusLancia, Jr (l to r) this past weekend

... and mud

///RhusLancia at the "Attack MX" Amateur Race, circa 2005. Oldest guy to qualify!

And here's a bunch more moto pics:

Moto Kidz: (l to r) Friend of ///RhusLancia, Jr, ///RhusLancia, Jr, Friend of ///RhusLancia, III, ///RhusLancia, III

Moto Kidz 2: (l to r) ///RhusLancia, III, Friend of ///RhusLancia, Jr, ///RhusLancia, Jr

In the desert after a rain:

///RhusLancia and ///RhusLancia, III

2 Boyz: ///RhusLancia, Jr & ///RhusLancia, III

Crashes:

On the track:

///Rhuslancia, Jr.

And finally, here I am on the news in this terrible TV to cell-phone transfer. I'm on the yellow bike. My friend and I went to the track and weren't gonna let a piddly monsoon stop us from putting some laps in. A news copter, out looking for swamped motorists to film, saw us and filmed a few minutes, and clips got in three evening news programs. I love the commentary. This was four years ago, but I am presently the same age as Dennis ("I'm not old").

So there you go. If any of youse commenters come thru Phoenix and have half a day to spend, I'll hook you up with an experience that'll change your perspective in a way that's much better then you'll get from Jamaiccan Red or whatever.

///R

Statistics from Iowa!

2009-04-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

Over at Musings on Iraq, Joel examines Iraq's economic performance over the last few decades and the recent increase in its GDP, noting at the same time the systemic issues that have kept it from rising faster. As usual with Joel, he offers both sourced statistics and a balanced interpretation of those numbers:

Iraq has had steady economic growth and a huge increase in its GDP since the 2003 invasion. Those aggregate numbers however don’t reveal the myriad problems that the country is facing. Almost all of that expansion was due to oil. In February 2009 a barrel of Iraqi crude sold at $38, down from its peak of $113.81 in July 2008. (NOTE: Iraqi oil sells below the world average, which went from $147 per barrel in July 2008 to around $50 currently.) The government dominates the economy, which is corrupt and inefficient. Investment is up, but it is caught in a bureaucratic maze that slows its impact. U.S. reconstruction funding is also coming to an end, and Baghdad has been unable to spend most of its capital budget that goes towards infrastructure. More importantly, the benefits of the development of Iraq have not trickled down much as there is still high unemployment, especially amongst the young, and high rates of poverty.

Iraq has a population of around 27 million, I believe, and a GDP of $85 billion. Iowa, my home-state, has a population of around 3 million and a GDP of about $130 billion.

Iraq: population, 27 million; GDP $85 billion
Iowa: population, 3 million; GDP $130 billion

Hey, I know what you're thinking. How the heck can a bunch of hog farmers in Iowa have a state GDP of around $130 billion?! Almost as much as the Kuwaiti oil sheikhs?! There are, indeed, a LOT of hog farmers in the state, and if you like to drive in the country on a fine summer evening, your nose will be assaulted by all kinds of nasty downwind smells that your urbane city nose will find objectionable. But, as it turns out, hog farming is just one line of business in Iowa. Just TAKE A LOOK. It seems that the open prairie and those sleepy small towns are, in fact, deceptively industrious.

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By the way, the ethanol plant that was built at the edge of my hometown, Dyersville, was recently closed down:

The plant opened in September and was projected to produce up to 110 million gallons of ethanol each year.

VeraSun filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Oct. 31. On Wednesday, it released its earnings statement, which showed the company had a net loss of more than $476 million in the last quarter.

Let me see. Opened in September and filed for bankruptcy on October 31?! I don't know if that's the fastest filing for Chapter 11 in corporate history, but -- my God! -- it has to be a contender.

And NO, I did NOT want the federal government to come in and bail out VeraSun. They rolled the dice and lost. That's life. The people in my hometown are kind of pissed, of course. I saw that plant under construction the last two or three years when I was visiting the folks. People in town thought it was another way to make money using their corn -- some for the hogs, some for the city-slickers in their PC hybrid cars. But those hopes were based, it seems, on very high oil prices. And, unfortunately, by the time they finished building the ethanol plant, the bottom fell out of the oil market and the prices began plummeting, making ethanol, for now, just a hog farmer's daydream as he sits whittling next to his potbellied stove on a cold winter day after morning chores are finished.

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Greetings from Iowa!

2009-04-10T07:39:00.000-07:00

Although I have lived all over the United States and in other countries, I was born and raised in Iowa, where my parents and two of my seven siblings still live. These days I only get back home around once a year, but when I visit I always try to take a few snapshots of the places I remember so well.

By clicking on the photos, you will get the enlarged version that offers much more detail and is very close to how it looked it to me as I snapped each photo. Enjoy.

Old Hwy. 20, west of Dyersville, Iowa

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April 9, 2003 -- April 9, 2009

2009-04-09T07:56:00.000-07:00

Today is April 9, 2009, six years from the day on which American forces entered Firdus Square in Baghdad and helped the Iraqi citizens pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein. Over at Eye Raki, Hayder offers thanks to those who have stood strong over the last six years:

Many people deserve praise for turning Iraq into what it is today; The coalition soldiers whose blood has been shed on Iraqi soil and mixed with the blood of Iraqi policemen and soldiers fighting a common enemy. The Iraqi politicians who had many sleepless nights trying their best to make sure Iraq does not free fall to disaster on their watch. Perhaps no one deserves more praise than the people of Iraq who are truly the unsung hero's of this tragic story. Hopefully a story that will have a happy ending. They sacrificed for their family and they sacrificed for their country. They stood strong against foreign powers and today the message is as clear and strong as ever. A new Iraq was born in 2003 and it is here to stay.

Over the last six years, starting with Salam Pax, we've heard from many Iraqis who, if Saddam Hussein were still in power, would never have been allowed to voice their opinions openly. The last six years, as Hayder alludes to, have also seen many enemies of democracy try to destroy the new Iraq that was trying to pull itself from decades of dictatorship. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni Baathists, and the Shia militants all took the lives of many Iraqi civilians in their hopes of scuttling the formation of a democratic Iraq. They almost succeeded. Although there are many factors that lead to today's relative peace and hope for the future in Iraq, President Bush's decision to follow General Petraeus's counter-insurgency plan, despite many around him, including Senator Obama, urging quick departure, must be given the most weight.

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From the student union at Qom Qommunity Qollege in Iran, Muqtada Al-Sadr called on Iraqis to protest the presence of American troops in Iraq. In fact, he called for a "million man" march. But, as Iraq Pundit writes today ("Viva Mookiestan?"), instead of a million, it looks like only a few thousand showed up:

To mark the anniversary, Moqtada called for a million man [Arabic] march. From the cosy comfort of Iran, he sent word that people should protest the U.S. presence in Iraq. And though the BBC reports say tens of thousands turned out for the demonstration, Iraqi reports say thousands showed up. Whatever the number, it was not a million.

By the way, I really wish I knew how to Photoshop. If I did, I'd put huge QQQ letters across Muqtada's belly.

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The Leopard Changes His Spots

2009-04-08T09:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I saw a film-clip of Obama addressing the US troops in Baghdad and thanking them for a job well done. "Son of a BITCH!" I thought. "This is the guy who would have yanked them from Iraq a few years ago!" And today, stopping over at Iraq Pundit's, I see that he was thinking the same thing as me. Iraq Pundit comments:

The president was right to praise the U.S. and Iraqi achievements. Who could disgaree with President Obama's comments? Of course, if the country had followed Barack Obama's original urgings, Iraq's 25 (or so) million people would not have had this democratic opportunity. Indeed, candidate Obama wasn't particularly concerned at the prospect of Iraqi genocide, never mind the prospect of democracy. President Obama is celebrating something that has happened in spite of candidate Obama. What a difference a title makes.

Indeed. President Bush was the one who risked everything to see that we were successful in Iraq, and here comes Obama, the guy who would have sold every last soldier down the river for his political ambitions, slapping the troops on their backs, shaking hands, and smiling for group photos. Empty suit, con man, or a leopard who can change his spots at will? Answer: all of the above.

I also noticed that what Obama said to the Turkish college students was quite different from what he told the US troops in Baghdad. In Istanbul, he told the assembled Turks that he was against the war. "I opposed the war and thought it was wrong," he said, clearly playing to the anti-war sympathies of the crowd. In Baghdad he sang another tune.

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Rememeber Touta's story of the man who returned from Jordan to Baghdad only to find a guy in a tracksuit and his family residing in his house? Well, yesterday, as promised, Touta provided her readers with a follow-up. The Iraqi government did not intervene; instead, to Touta's surprise, it was decided by tribal methods. Touta explains:

Enter gang boss, aka well known sheik of the area. This is baghdad by the way, not a tribal-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-bedou-camp.

He called a meeting thing, and said the house was not the 'government or whatever idiot had given it away', so although he felt sorry for the man in the tracksuit, because it wasn't his fault, the house belonged to the guy who returned from jordan.

He said that the tracksuit guy had seven days to 'adil his umoor' (straighten his stuff), and then the original owner should move in, and check that nothing is missing.

As we have written about here at IBC many times here, tribes are important key to understanding Iraqi society, especially outside Baghdad. And, as Touta witnessed, even in Baghdad, where tribal influence is the weakest, you can still feel their reach. I want to be very clear, though. I do not see tribes as good or bad social arrangements, just different from what we as Americans are used to.

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From Iraqi Bloggers Central: Tribe or Party? This blog entry includes links to Zeyad Kasim's four-part series Iraq's Tribal Society: A State within a State.

From Riverbend: Sheikhs and Tribes.

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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Khalid Ibrahim is now running a blog similar to ours that covers the Iraqi blogosphere: Iraqi Blog Updates.

Please stop by and say hello. On our blogroll, you will find the link to his website at the bottom of the "Iraqi Bloggers (Active)" list, where Iraq Blog Count used to be.

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UPDATE: Michael Totten has a new article up: Sadr City After the Fall.

Commenter Doug Santo remarks on Totten's piece:

That is some of the best reporting I've read on Iraq. That is some the best reporting I've read period. You should start a journalism school for western reporters who want to learn their trade.

Heh.

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Greetings from New York City

2009-04-07T07:34:00.000-07:00

With only a few weeks left here at IBC, I thought I'd post a few photos from New York City, the place where I live and work.

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Programming Note

2009-04-06T08:26:00.000-07:00

Iraqi Bloggers Central will celebrate its five-year anniversary in just a few weeks. On May 1, 2009, I will write the last blog entry for IBC. The decision to shut down was made several months ago and my co-bloggers have now been notified. I'm going to keep the blog online, primarily as a resource for anyone interested in the history of the Iraqi blogosphere and as a guide for any new bloggers who would like to write about this community. I will say all my farewells and many thank-yous on May 1.

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Iraqi civilians died under Saddam and the Baathists, and today in a series of six car-bombs more died. Who is responsible for such senseless murders? The Baathists? AQI? The Baathists and AQI together again? Iraq Pundit concludes:

Whoever was behind the bombs, the NYT quotes a construction worker who explains it best. The newspaper says Hussein Jawad expressed anger but seemed at a loss to understand a motive behind the bombing, except to say, “The point behind this explosion was sabotage.”

The reason why the Baathists and AQI worked together in the first place was because they both wanted to see the new Iraq fail. The majority of the Sunni Baathists were later flipped because they were either dying in combat against the Americans or because they were being blown up by AQI suicide-bombers who forgot to tell their colleagues that they didn't really care if Shia or Sunni died as long as they were Iraqi. One wonders, though, if there still isn't a hardcore group of Baathists working with the remnants of AQI.

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Many of you, I'm sure, have been wondering what's been going on with Iraq's oil industry. Joel, over at Musings on Iraq, takes a look at Shahristani's record over the past few years at the Oil Ministry. Joel remarks:

With so many different voices, and arguments going on, it is unlikely that there will be any major change in oil policy in the short-term. That will give Minister Shahristani more time to follow his haphazard deals that have failed to raise production or lead to major oil contracts. It would probably take the political intervention of Maliki or the parliament to pass legislation to strip the Oil Ministry of much of its authority to make any real difference. The legislature has been deadlocked over other oil laws however, so even that is questionable.

Shahristani, many of you probably remember, was a scientist who was arrested and tortured by Saddam's goons. From interviews, you can see that he is an intelligent and compassionate man. At the same time, in Joel's assessment, he has not been very effective as Iraq's Oil Minister. Perhaps others have comments to make on this matter.

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Will Najma And Bookish Spend Their Honeymoon In Saddam's Bed?

2009-04-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

Saddam's bedroom: Will Najma and Bookish be spending their Honeymoon there? Cr: www.aljewar.org

Spring has sprung in Iraq, and the Iraqis' thoughts have turned away from war to that of love. And Make Love Not War could have been the recent theme of the Iraqi Blogosphere, as amour was clearly blossoming. First, Sunshine surprised us all admitting she liked Spiky-Haired Iraqi Boys. Now, many of Sunshine's teenage male friends across the world will start wearing their hair rather spiky, just to catch the young Renaissance woman's attention. And, then some shocking big news came rolling down the hill like an elephant on a wobbly skateboard, and left us all gasping our breaths in amazement.

NAJMA IS ENGAGED.

NAJMA!!??

Yes, that Najma, and here's her official announcement: Tomorrow is the second week anniversary of my engagement to the most amazing man.. They were two weeks in heaven.

The "most amazing man" is her fellow Mosul blogger, Bookish, who chimes in, I am now engaged to the nicest and most fantastic girl in the world, The lovely and wonderful Najma. The girl who I am TOTALLY sure that I want to spend every single moment of my life with her. I am so incredibly happy.

Wow, simply red, wow! And how will the Ice Princess be able to concentrate on her studies now, being head over heals in love? Well, we wish the happy couple a lot of luck. But, do they really need any luck with the power of love on their side?

As Najma tells us, Everything feels different now.. I am different now.. this is the beginning of the rest, and the best, of my life.

Sniff, I may cry.

Now, the big question on everyone's minds - after of course, when will the wedding take place? -- is where will they spend their honeymoon?

Well, it may be in Germany, as Bookish is heading off to Deutschland to work on his Master's Degree.

But, why go all the way to Germany, when a Funky Cold Medina of an entertaining Honeymoon can be had for the frolicking twosome in their native Iraq?

As The Sunday Times conveys to us, Saddam’s bed awaits daring honeymooners - The former Iraqi dictator's palatial boudoir is being offered to newlyweds for £150 a night.

And who wouldn't want to honeymoon among Roman columns, chandeliers and gargantuan bathrooms? Located at Hillah, sixty miles south of Baghdad, perched on top of a man-made hill overlooking the magnificent and placid Euphrates, the bedroom and stately palace that comes with it, is all within easy driving distance of the amazing ancient splendour that was Babylon.

Now, that's a Honeymoon, Najma and Bookish, you can tell all your kids about...

Other Blogospheres, Other Worlds

2009-04-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

If I click on my Firefox browser bookmarks, I can pull down a list of folders holding links to a wide range of different blogospheres. Today, to brighten up your day a bit from the sad state of the Iraqi blogosphere, I thought I'd share some of those links from my "Americans Abroad" series.

You will find Americans living in most of the countries around the world, and among them there will always be a blogging community. Each day, if you wish, you can find out what other Americans are experiencing in their new homes abroad. I'll start with a few selected links from my files for Americans living in China, Germany, and South Korea.

CHINA

Ben Ross's Blog: A Midwesterner in the Middle Kingdom. Born and raised in Kansas City, Ben moved to China, learned Chinese as he taught English, and his blog chronicles many of his experiences, from being on a TV game-show -- Fuzhou Foreign Idol (Part 1); Fuzhou Foreign Idol (Part 2) -- to working in a barbershop for a month -- Thirty Days in a Fuzhou Barbershop. Although recently relocated back to the US, he returns to China frequently for business and fun.

Matt Schiavenza: A China Journal. Matt, a young Californian from the Bay Area (and die-hard SF Giants fan), has been living in Kunming, China, for several years.

Jottings from the Granite Studio: A Qing Historian Reads the Newspaper. A Ph.D. candidate currently living and teaching history in Beijing.

Sinosplice: Try to Understand China. Learn Chinese. John is the founder of ChinesePod, a successful website for learning Chinese using podcasts.

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GERMANY

Observing Hermann. Very humorous look at German society through the eyes of an American in Berlin who has lived in Deutschland for a couple decades.

Heidelbergerin. An American woman originally from Iowa but now living and studying in Heidelberg along with her husband.

German Joys. Andrew is a law professor in Duesseldorf.

Germany Doesn't Suck: Or Does It? J. is an American teaching English near Bonn.

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SOUTH KOREA

The Marmot's Hole: Rantings of the ‘Korea-Dwelling Expat Blogger’s Version of Jimmy the Greek’. Robert Koehler is an editor who has been living in Korea for around ten years.

Mississippi to Korea. Jason has been living in Korea since 2005.

Brian in Jeollanam-do. This native of Pittsburgh, PA, has been in Korea for three years.

Going Places. Diana has been in Korea since 2007. In her blog entry "Revision Matters," she writes about a discussion she had with a Korean about the ways in which "hard work," important in both cultures, is viewed differently. Diana comments:

I love this kind of cultural exchange. In fact, a big reason that I left the U.S. to teach in Korea was my interest in learning about another culture by living in it. I have immersed myself in everything Korean: I try all the spicy food; I practice taekwondo; I study the language; I visit the temples; I make friends with the people. For the last year and a half, I have been trying to make sense of my adopted country, Korea, and usually I must do so by making comparisons with my homeland, America.

Although I thought I was coming here to learn about the world and another way of life, I find myself paying more attention to American issues than I did when I lived there. Unexpectedly, Ive discovered a hobby here in Korea that originated in my own land, swing dance. Suddenly, things that used to bother me about America (like our overly competitive society and eagerness to pretend there are no class differences at birth) are starting to make sense. I’m finding more and more that Edward T. Hall, a well-known anthropologist, was right when he said, “The real job is not to understand foreign culture, but to understand our own.”

Ironically, I had to move halfway around the world to begin to do just that.

As many of these bloggers have found out, like Diana, living in another country teaches you a lot not only about your adopted home but also about the culture in which you were raised. There will always be differences between cultures, but what one learns before too long is that those differences -- in behavior, values, and value hierarchies -- make sense within their respective cultures and have a long history.

These selected blogs, of course, represent just a fraction of those blogospheres. If you're interested in a particular group of bloggers living somewhere, I recommend checking out their blogrolls and creating your own bookmark folder so you can check in every few days to see what's going on with them.

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UPDATE: Here's a resource that allows you to find expat blogs from all over the world: Expat Blog. Click on any region of the world, select a country, and then explore the bloggers there. A little flag will indicate their nationality. You can check out their profile as well as their blog.

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For those of you who have been following Sahar Gabriel's articles for the NYTimes Baghdad Bureau, she has just arrived in the US: Arriving In America - The Other Side Of This War.

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Six Years Ago Today

2009-04-01T08:17:00.000-07:00

Over at Baghdad Blogger today Salam Pax takes a look at the three main Baghdad newspapers (with above-the-fold scans) for April 1, 2003, published in the middle of Operation Iraqi Freedom and during the last days of Saddam's tyrannical regime ("1st of April 2003 in Iraqi newspapers"). At that time Saddam Hussein and his two sons, Uday and Qusay, were still alive and the Baathists were in control of the media, as they were of everything else. In Al-Jumhuriya, Salam notes:

On the last page a comment of Saddam’s message on the 25th of March says that the message was “a crowning to power and victory”.. yeah, whatever.. and finally there is a little column explaining the origins of a word the minister of Information has been using to describe the coalition forces since the start of the war. “Uluj”.. a term which had us all digging for those old Arabic dictionaries was used from day one of the war by Al-Sahaf.. I am until today not sure what it means. Thankfully, this six year old article enlightens. Uluj has two meanings according to this column. One, it’s a particularly insulting term for ‘infidel’ and the second is ‘a wild donkey’.. Huh! Who would have thought al-Sahaf had it in him! Comical indeed!

Al-Sahaf (aka Baghdad Bob) will always be remembered as the face of retarded disinformation. "They are trapped everywhere in the country," Al-Sahaf says. "They are not near Baghdad."

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Last month the casualty figures for US forces in Iraq were the lowest on record. According to Iraqi Coalition Casualty Count, in the month of March four Americans were killed due to hostile action and five due to non-hostile actions. These figures support the widespread view that the so-called resistance is close to terminal, if not already moribund. For an overview of hostile/non-hostile figures for the last six years, take a look at this chart.

Meanwhile, over on Mojo's comments page, Bruno, the Afrikaner and virulent anti-American, writes:

I think that a lot of the resistance groups are waiting to see whether or not the Amreeki will indeed leave or not before fighting again. Barring the occasional prod up the arse, to remind the invader what could happen if they don't.

Bruno admits that the resistance groups are no longer fighting the Americans. But why? Of course, Bruno doesn't say why, but the fact is that every time they took on the American forces they often found themselves either captured or dead. It was, to say the least, discouraging. At some point the majority of them decided it was better for themselves and for Iraqis in general if they stopped fighting Americans.

So what do you call a dead-ender resistance group that no longer fights but just WAITS for their opponents to leave? In my book, that's one defeated resistance group. Bruno then suggests that the occasional attack on US forces is just a reminder of the world of hurt that will be visited upon the Americans by the so-called resistance groups. Riiiiight. "See what will happen to you if you don't leave," I guess Bruno imagines them saying. How pathetic is that? The reality is that the resistance, no matter how much Bruno cheerleads for them, is finished.

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On the Iraqi side, the casualty figures for Iraqi security and civilians have remained about the same, around two hundred or so deaths, for the last few months (Iraq Coalition Casualty Count). The majority of the deaths, it seems, occurred in and around Mosul in the north. The casualties from yesterday, March 31, 2003, show the types of actions responsible for the majority of deaths over the last few months:

BAGHDAD - A Sunni Arab official who looks after mosques was killed by a bomb planted under his car in northern Baghdad's Adhamiya district, police said.

MOSUL - Attackers wounded three civilians when they hurled a hand-grenade at a U.S. military patrol in central Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL - Seven people were killed, including four police officers, and 40 others wounded when a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden truck into the compound of a police station in Mosul, north of Baghdad, police said.

FALLUJA - A sticky bomb attached to a car wounded three police officers in the city of Falluja, 50 km (35 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A mortar round wounded three people in Zaafaraniya district of southeastern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A mortar round wounded two people in eastern Baghdad, police said.

Okay, let's take a look. A revenge killing; a couple of Bruno's dead-enders toss a grenade at Americans and kill Iraqi civilians; a suicide-bomber kills Iraqi police officers; another bomb kills Iraqi police officers; a few more of Bruno's moronic dead-enders mortar a couple neighborhoods at random and injure five Iraqi citizens just going about their business.

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The Personal and the Political

2009-03-31T07:46:00.000-07:00

For those of you like me who are following Shaggy's blog, in his latest entry -- "Prostate's Good" -- we learn that Shaggy went to visit a doctor for his "leaking" penis. I guess it doesn't get any more personal than that, right? And, of course, Shaggy's Dad is still trying to hook him up with a wife:

Later this evening, my dad took me to that 'lady of society' that I've mentioned before. She had found me a 'suitable' woman and we were all invited at her house. The girl was not especially pretty and certainly didn't know how to do her hair nor how to dress in this century. I spoke to the lady outside and told her that she looks a bit heavy to which she responded with you can't have it all good to which I replied that I worry about my back. It went pretty well, dad kept his cool for once and didn't bring up the 'marriage' subject out loud. The evening passed and I didn't exchange a single word with her, but I still had fun conversing with everyone else present.

Right now Shaggs isn't having too much luck finding a suitable wife; we here at IBC hope his fortune changes soon.

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Meanwhile, on the political side, Eye Raki has posted an entry -- "Newton's Third Law" -- on the Hakim family, traditional Iraqi political heavyweights, and its struggles with the newcomer Maliki:

Although SIIC feels defeated and let down by the people they also feel betrayed by Maliki. The only consistent thing I have heard from SIIC so far is the sense of betrayal. They believe it was Hakim who made Maliki into what he is today. Without Hakims support and defence Maliki would have just been another Da'wa member. Maybe one day a Minister. Or so they say.

It is not just the ascent to power that they argue was down to Hakim and SIIC, but also his stay in power. Hakim gave Maliki his unconditional support in the fight against the Sadrists in 2008. Ex-Badr militiamen played a role in helping the IA tear apart the Mehdi Army. Maliki should owe his very existence and survival to Hakim. Although these claims are far fetched (the Sunnis and Kurds played the biggest hand in making sure Ja'fari stood down and Hakim was not the only supporter of Maliki in his war with Sadr) the result remains the same. Hakim helps Maliki defeat Sadr. Maliki trumps Hakim in the elections. Maliki allies with Sadr. Hakim, who is already isolated, now feels betrayed.

This quote is just a teaser, of course. I recommend reading the entire entry. Eye Raki points out that something really has changed in Iraq since 2003:

Anyone going through the check-list could easily tell that Hakim beats Maliki where it matters. Except of course in something which is a new phenomenon in Iraq. The ballot.

While the Iraqi blogosphere is at a low point in both production and quality of posts, there are still a few bloggers like Shaggy and Eye Raki pounding out new entries, covering both the personal and the political, to keep the community from completely flatlining. We tip our hats to them.

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One Iraqi who has continued to blog regularly is Iraq Pundit, one of the first-wave bloggers whose focus has been media coverage of events in Iraq. The last two days he has been following the news reports on the fighting and arrest of Adel Mashadani in the Fadhil neighborhood of Baghdad. Yesterday Iraq Pundit opened his entry -- "Viva the Revolution!" -- with tongue placed firmly in cheek:

Good day and welcome to the Iraq news restaurant. I'll be your waiter, and here are our specials today. We are featuring a clash in the Fadhil neighbourhood of Baghdad. Choices from the menu include an "uprising," a "rebellion," a "fall" of the Awakening, a return of al-Qaeda, and an uprising that challenged the Iraqi government's authority and its efforts to pacify the [not just Fadhil but the entire] capital.

In today's entry -- "Calm Returns After Clashes" -- Iraq Pundit takes a look at the follow-up reports on Fadhil, including Juan Cole's usual muddled dithering.

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And back to the personal. Today, in an entry called "Lovely Lies," Sami (Skies) interpolates personal stories into an Iraqi song. Here is one of the stories from his childhood:

It was war and we moved to a new place to live for a while. I befriended him from the first day when I saw him playing chess alone. He was so sensitive and he never saw Baghdad. I missed my Baghdad so I started lying. I told him that every three or four of our neighbors run a musical rock band and that I have a band with 2 other boys and that I was the keyboard player and the singer. I even claimed to him that I am a professional guitar player. He was a boy from a village, and he was so polite. He took me once to his brother's house and he came with a guitar. He sat on the floor and played a sad piece of Spanish music. Something like "Malaga". Then he taught me to play it. How wise he was. How polite. The next day I didn't stop telling my legendary tales. What a spoilt kid I was.

I wonder what he is doing now.

On the Banks of the Tigris

2009-03-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

In his latest entry at Baghdad Blogger, Salam Pax writes about sitting on the banks of the Tigris on a warm, sunny day in Baghdad with a newspaper in his hands. He comes across a headline for an AP article by Hamza Hendawi (about whom I've written here) about the very city he was sitting in. Stunned by the headline, Salam sets the newspaper aside, thinks about it, and then picks up the paper again and starts to look squarely at his hometown.

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Michael Totten has started to publish new pieces from his latest trip to Iraq. You can now read "Baghdad in Fragments" on his website.

UPDATE: Over at PJM, Richard Fernandez (Belmont Club) has written a very good analysis of how Totten's reporting differs from the standard MSM product: Eyes Wide Open.

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Shaggy's Dad is still trying to find his son a wife but isn't having much luck. Shaggy reports:

Whilst working on some paper work, my dad introduced me to the niece of the managing director of the government office we were at. That was about ten days ago, and up until a couple of days the girl would insist that we talk every night on the phone. I'd be barely awake and talk with her for a rather boring hour. [power cut..] Just spoke to her now though. Now I told dad that after speaking to her that she's not right for me, and he told me that I have to break it off with her, but I just don't know how to without hurting her feelings. I know, it's better to deal with it sooner than later, but I do keep throwing suggestions that I'm not interested.

Well, at least Shaggy has Tequila and a doner kebab to help him figure out what to do.

*

Even worse than the decline in the number of new Iraqi bloggers has been the utter destruction of the comments pages in the Iraqi blogosphere. Where once one could find very lively debates -- many of them heated, of course -- one now finds the same entrenched views repeated ad nauseum. The same people who ruined Zeyad's comments pages are now migrating over to Iraqi Mojo's, where they display and reinforce their irrational hatreds. The glory days of the Iraqi blogosphere comments pages are long gone.

*

Echoing Salam Pax's entry on relocated families in Baghdad, Touta today writes about a man from her neighborhood who had been forced out of his house due to the violence from a year or two ago ("And That's How It Goes Down"). He shut the house up, moved to Jordan, and then returned to find another family living in his home. At the gate of his house, the owner encounters a man in a tracksuit. Touta reports:

Suddenly the man points an angry finger at the guy in the tracksuit at the house's gate. He says (translated badly by me): " Look! Look People! Look at why we will never be at peace, why we will never have success and power! This is my house, 20 years of work! 20 years! Who is this?! Can any of you tell me who is living in my house!? By my blood, i built this house brick by brick!". His voice breaks at the last sentence, and he really looks like he can't talk anymore.

Ever felt a deep stab of pity and sorrow[?] I did for the man. Why would he lie? He walks round in a circle, and i somehow feel he is trying his best not to scream/cry.

Is It Better to Burn Out Than Fade Away?

2009-03-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, the Iraqi blogosphere has been in decline for a while now. Let's take a look at an overview of its history, using the year and month of first entries for new bloggers as a guide to its health:

2002

Salam Pax -- September, 2002.

2003

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad -- June, 2003.
Nawar (Ishtar Talking) -- July, 2003.
Riverbend -- August, 2003.
Zeyad -- October, 2003.
Kurdo -- October, 2003.
Fayrouz -- October, 2003.
Ihath -- October, 2003
Omar, Mohammed, and Ali Fadhil -- November, 2003.
AYS -- November, 2003.
Hammorabi Sam -- November, 2003.
Alaa -- November, 2003.
Firas -- November, 2003.
Nabil -- November, 2003.
Faiza Jarrar (family blog) -- December, 2003
Khalid Jarrar -- December, 2003.
Sarmad -- December, 2003.

2004

Liminal -- January, 2004.
Majid Jarrar -- February, 2004.
Raed Jarrar -- March, 2004.
Ibn Alrafidain -- June, 2004.
Najma -- June, 2004.
Sara -- June, 2004.
Iraq Pundit -- July, 2004.
Kurdistan Bloggers Union (Dilnareen et al.) -- July, 2004.
HNK -- July, 2004.
Raghda -- July, 2004.
Salam Pax (Fat Whiner) -- August, 2004.
Rose -- August, 2004.
Anarki-13 -- August, 2004.
Nancy (Beth Nahrain) -- August, 2004.
Neurotic Iraqi Wife -- August, 2004.
Shaggy -- September, 2004
Ali Fadhil (Free Iraqi) -- December, 2004.

2005

Dr. Truth Teller -- January, 2005.
Hassan (Average Iraqi) -- February, 2005.
Ahmad (Iraqi Expat) -- March, 2005.
Morbid Smile -- April, 2005.
Sunshine -- April, 2005.
Sooni -- April, 2005.
Akba -- April, 2005.
Salam Adil (Asterism) -- May, 2005.
Mama (Sunshine's mother) -- July, 2005.
Iraqi Roulette -- July, 2005.
Konfused Kid -- July, 2005.
Omar (24) -- August, 2005.
Treasure of Baghdad -- August, 2005.
Caesar of Pentra -- September, 2005.
Attawie -- September, 2005.
Still Alive (My Letters to America) -- September, 2005.
Iraqi Lord -- November, 2005.

2006

Eye Raki -- February, 2006.
Hala -- February, 2006.
Chikitita -- March, 2006.
Saminkie (Colors of Mind / Skies) -- April, 2006
Gilgamesh (Into the Sun) -- June, 2006.
Marshmallow 26 -- August, 2006.
Mix Max -- September, 2006.
Iraqi Mojo -- October, 2006.
A & E Iraqi -- November, 2006.
Iraqi Atheist -- December, 2006.
M.H.Z. -- December, 2006.

2007

Zappy -- January, 2007.
BlogIraq -- February, 2007
Sheko Meko -- March, 2007.
Shaqawa -- April, 2007.
Great Baghdad -- April, 2007.
Kassakhoon -- April, 2007.
Mohammed (Last of Iraqis) -- May, 2007.
Bookish (Mosul) -- June, 2007.
Gilgamesh X -- September, 2007.

2008

Baghdadentist -- January, 2008.
Iraqi Translator -- March, 2008.
Sam (Interps Life) -- April, 2008.
Violet -- August, 2008.
Touta -- October, 2008.

2009

Moonlight -- January, 2009.

*

As you can see, there have been very few new bloggers over the last year. On a positive note, however, a couple of the veteran Iraqi bloggers -- Salam Pax and Chikitita, for example -- have returned to Iraq and have started to write from a much different country than the one they left. Iraq Pundit and Iraqi Mojo have been the most consistent bloggers of late and seem to be pulling most of the load.

The blogroll for the inactive Iraqi blogs is much longer than the blogroll for those Iraqis who are still blogging on a regular basis. Bloggers burn out. I guess even blogospheres burn out. Is that what's happening here? The light we see now might actually be from a star that is already a cold, distant rock.

What is the future of the Anglophone Iraqi blogosphere? Your guess is as good as mine.

Hey, hey. My, My.

*

Yes, Chikitita has returned to Baghdad after a year's absence: Return of the Jinx.

Take a trip through time with Sami: A la Recherche du Temps Baghdadi Perdu.

How about photos from a picnic with Attawie in the UAE? A Picnic on the Beach.

*

HOUSEKEEPING NOTE: I have once again weeded out blogs that haven't been updated in the last three months and moved them to the Iraqi Bloggers (Inactive) list at the bottom of the blogroll.

*

Shiastan (Iraqi Theocratic Republic) Welcomes Criminal Terrorist Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani With Open Arms

2009-03-06T17:29:00.000-08:00

So where were the spiders while the flies tried to break our balls...

Ziggy Stardust

As expressed in a recent post of hers, Conservative commentator Debbie Schlussel is not happy:

I Told You So: Iran Gets Its Hands Deeper Into "Liberated" Iraq

One of the nightmarish results from America's Iraq fiasco has been the expansion of Iranian hegemony and influence throughout the Middle East. As Debbie tells it, I warned that we should not have democratic elections and hand this country over to Iranian-backed Shi'ites, and instead should have turned it over to a pro-U.S. Shah-like dictator. But instead we opted for this "democracy" (the same kind that put HAMAS and Hezbollah in power).

Personally, I would have preferred a monarchy or even a communist regime to the Theocratic Sectarian Government currently in charge, but I can't (and no one else should) quibble with her over the broadening base of Iranian power in the Middle East.

Within this milieu of increasing Iranian involvement, especially in the affairs of Iraq, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the influential Iranian Expediency Council, enters the picture.

As Schlussel describes him, the former Iranian President is, an ally of the late Ayatollah Khomeini and no enemy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the ayatollahs who run Iran. And he's, announced he will fund and assist in Iraq's reconstruction. Rafsanjani is one of Iran's most influential and powerful politicians and religious leaders. He's not pledging the help just 'cuz. He's doing it to solidify the latent unity with Iran that Iraq has developed and will continue to embrace more and more openly. Rafsanjani said he visited Iraq to strengthen Iran-Iraq religious, political, and economic ties. Not a good thing.

Bad Dude 101, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani - cr. Wikipedia

And the Iraqis have welcomed him with open arms. America's favorite exceedingly bloated and corrupt Iraqi President Jalad Talabani greeted Akbar Hasemi Rafsanjani saying, Iraqi authorities could benefit from Rafsanjani's "long experience" as a leader who helped rebuild Iran after its war with Iraq...

And it's not surprising at all that he met with his fellow Israel-despising, Mr. Sharia Law himself, the Grand Dragon, Ayatollah Sistani (Thanks Ladybird): Rafsanjani visited Shiites holly (sic) cities Karbala and Najaf and met with Shiites Supreme clerics, Rafsanjani described his meeting with Sistani as “historical”.

That must have been one hell of a "historical" Jew-hate fest when those two noted anti-Semites came together. I can just imagine their conversation:

Rafsanjani: In Iran, we hang our Jews.

Sistani: We chased all our Jews away, only five left in the country.

Rafsanjani: Can't top that. You da Man, Sistani.

Well, Iraq's happy embrace of Rafsanjani should should elicit disgust from any American that cares about Iraq. Frankly, Rafsanjani should be subjected to citizen's arrest, because he is both a criminal and a terrorist thug.

On July 18, 1994, the Argentine Israeli Mutual Aid Association (Argentina Jewish Community Center) in Buenos Aires was bombed in a terrorist attack, resulting in the deaths of 85 people and casualties in the hundreds. The suicide bomber, Ibrahim Hussein Berro, a "Hezbollah operative from Lebanon" (with relatives in Dearborn, Michigan), carried out the attack at the behest of Hezbollah, and according to Argentinian prosecutors, the decision to attack the center, was undertaken, "by the highest authorities of the then-government of Iran..." which was of course headed by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. In 2006, the Argentinian prosecutors asked a federal judge to, order the arrest of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and seven others for the Jewish Community Center bombing...They asked the judge to seek international and national arrest orders for Rafsanjani...

There was also, among other criminal acts that Rafsanjani organized, the "1992 Mykonos restaurant assassinations of Sadiq Sharafkindi, an Iranian-Kurdish leader, as well as three of his associates," which German prosecutors contend was, "personally ordered" by Rafsanjani and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Can you imagine the United States allowing acceptance of such tainted reconstruction money? Well, perhaps under the current Obama administration, but during previous administrations, not even Bill Clinton would stoop so low.

But, then again this is Iraq, and the bombing of a Jewish Community Center would be greeted favorably by many Iraqis, including some of the bloggers. In fact, I recall one Iraqi blogger commenting a while back, that they'd like to see Israel burned and the Jews driven into the sea.

Any ways, as a VOA report notes: Washington has expressed concern about increasing ties between the two Shi'ite-majority neighbors.

Lol, if only the Bush administration had thought of that beforehand...

IraqPundit on the Juan Cole and the Kurds

2009-03-05T07:32:00.000-08:00

In December 2006, Prof. Cole posted his top ten myths about Iraq. Most of the myths are just semantic arguments or strawmen, but following were emphatic:
1. Myth number one is that the United States "can still win" in Iraq
This was just six months before the insurgency came in from the cold and AQ in Iraq's dominance of Anbar ended.

5. The second Lancet study showing 600,000 excess deaths from political and criminal violence since the US invasion is somehow flawed.
This was less than a month before the Lancet study was exposed as a farce. The vivisectioning continues as IraqPundit recently reported:

AP says Johns Hopkins "announced yesterday that it is barring Gilbert M. Burnham [Lancet Study author] from serving as a principal investigator on projects involving human subjects.

IP on Prof. Juan Cole

IraqPundit offers more evidence that the professing Cole is not really so comfortable with Arabic. Sad because he's had 6 years to buttress his boasts with actual knowledge.

Yesterday the professor wrote that he read in Arabic language Azzaman, "the arrival of United Nations counselors in Kirkuk with an aim of compiling a list of 'original' inhabitants of the city has provoked a wave of assassinations in the disputed city." The story actually says a census will be conducted. Cole then refers to Jala Naftji, a Turkmen member of the Kirkuk governing council, as a man. According to Cole, Nafitji "told Al-Zaman that he had been afraid of an increasing security vacuum in the province." Never mind that Jala is a woman's name and the newspaper used feminine pronouns. But Cole's an expert who is fluent in Arabic. Who am I to argue?

A couple of years ago Christopher Hitchens and The New York Times noted that Cole's ease with Persian was dubious as well.

IP Notes AP Only Reports Arab Atrocities Against Kurds

Does the reader get any figures about Kurdish violence against non-Kurds in Nineveh? No, because they are often portrayed as victims. The mainstream media have been covering the north as though it is only Kurdish territory. That is wrong.[...]What about Turkmen and Assyrians and others? I personally know people who have had their homes stolen by the peshmerga. The reporter writes as though the non-Kurdish people of Kirkuk do not exist. Certainly his Kurdish sources are not going to remind him.

Everything IP says is true. Also, while the Kurdish-controlled regions have been relatively liberal and secure since the fall of Saddam, they are in many ways politically repressive...for Kurds and especially for non-Kurds as the erstwhile blogger Kurdo once pointed out poignantly (although I can't seem to find the post).

My take is that absent a political solution, the Kurdish-Arab problems will be solved inevitably by force. Unfortunately however, neither the Kurds nor the Arabs are inclined to reach concessions:

The Kurds because they are better organized and have the upper hand.
The Arabs because they believe they will soon BE much better organized and thus have the upper hand through their numbers.

If Arabs are being mistreated now, they will soon be able to turn things around...and the Arab suicide bombers will still be there.

And that's why, for what it's worth, I am slightly more sympathetic toward the Kurd's side: because I consider their plight to be existential (speaking as a political and cultural coalition, not individuals) while the situation of Arab Iraqis is less dire. Kurds are plundering the homes of non-Kurds for their homes as Arabs have been doing elsewhere. But Kurds (so far as I have heard) are not killing random people simply for not being Kurdish, while there are still Arab Iraqis killing Kurds for being Kurdish.

Does that make what the peshmurga are doing right? Does that ameliorate the injustice done to perfectly innocent Arab and non-Arab Iraqis who are being ethnically purged for the crime of not being Kurdish and for having something some Kurd with a gun wants? NO. That's why I said "I am SLIGHTLY more sympathetic toward the Kurdish plight".

And, anyway, as much as I want it, I don't see a political solution in the offing very soon.

While the fight over Kirkuk is also a greed issue on both sides (oh! that precious, beautiful oil revenue!), the core issue is trust:

Arab Iraqis think the Kurds want to take Kirkuk and leave.
Question: Why does that bother them?
Answer: It is human nature to value something more if others value it. And anyway the Arabs think that the Kurds WILL leave if they secure Kirkuk a Kurdish. And although they don't want to admit it, that clearly bothers them.

Iraqi Kurds believe that if Arabs become a significant voting block in Kurdish regions, they will use that power to oppress Kurdish language and culture. Looking at the last 80 years of Iraqi history, it is difficult to argue that that is not the case. The position of many Arab Iraqi bloggers seems to be "tough luck for them".
What is so great about Kirkuk? The Kurds see the arabization of Kirkuk (which began well before the Ba'athists came to power in the early 60s) as a shocking injustice to them, and they want that rectified. Well, it was. It is also, true that the Kurds see the oil of Kirkuk as way to make viable the idea of an independent Kurdistan--either because they actually want it or because they want to it as political leverage.

The truth is that there is not enough oil in the world to make an independent Kurdistan viable in the forseeable future for the reasons I explained here (although a failed Iraq is no longer a concern, the upshot is still true):

The new Kurdistan will be at war with the countries on its West, East, North, and South: Turkey, Iran, Syria, Iraq and the attempted independent Sunni state. [Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq] will begin handing out money and supplies to secure aliances with the local Arabs and other ethnicalities, and with rival Kurdish groups within the new Kurdish state. So in addition to fighting a war on every front, the new Kurdistan will be engaged in a no-holds-barred civil war with itself...Kurdistan will become the center of a maelstrom with a maelstrom.

George Packer

For more on this, I recommend the 2004 George Packer article The Next Iraqi War.
Money quote: "Fanaticism is the legacy of Saddam's Arabization policy."
--

The Bloggers and the Speech

2009-03-02T09:50:00.001-08:00

UPDATE

It seems that Jon Stewart (at least) has noticed
the striking similarities in the plans of
Presidents Bush & Obama.

There is relatively little comment from Iraqi bloggers about Pres. Obama's "Iraq Speech" on Friday. And why should there be? Obama essentially conceded to the the Bush strategy:

Draw down the troops to 50,000 by August of next year.

THEN

In 2006, Obama called for the immediate draw-down of US troops in Iraq to zero within 16 months. Sen. McCain rightly pointed out that his plan would have meant that last US boot would have been out of Iraq at the very point that more boots that (in conjunction with the Sunni Arab provinces finally getting a clue) more boots had completely turned things around. During the campaign, Obama (like US journalists generally) refused to acknowledge that the surge had improved anything.

Very late in the campaign --as Candidate Obama perversely began to brag that his position on Iraq was closer to Pres. Bush's than Sen. McCain's-- he still called for a 16 month drawn-down of every single US service personnel in Iraq.

NOW

On Friday PRESIDENT Obama said:

"To understand where we need to go in Iraq, it is important for the American people to understand where we now stand. Thanks in great measure to [the work of the US military], the situation in Iraq has improved. Violence has been reduced substantially from the horrific sectarian killing of 2006 and 2007. Al Qaeda in Iraq has been dealt a serious blow by our troops and Iraq's Security Forces, and through our partnership with Sunni Arabs. The capacity of Iraq's Security Forces has improved, and Iraq's leaders have taken steps toward political accommodation. The relative peace and strong participation in January's provincial elections sent a powerful message to the world about how far Iraqis have come in pursuing their aspirations through a peaceful political process."

Instead of removing all troops from Iraq in 16 months, he is now calling for bring down the levels 50,000 in 18 months. Then he is calling for removing all the troops in 20011. He says that draw-down to 50,000 includes all US "combat troops", but as we all know now, there is no such thing as a non-combat troop in Iraq. They are all targets, and therefore they are all potential combatants.

In a column at WaPo, former Bush administration Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Douglas Feith, cuts the President about a mile of slack for his turn-around:

His speech effectively repudiated the extreme antiwar rhetoric of recent years. [CMAR II says "that is, his own extreme anti-war rhetoric"] In setting aside the 16-month exit timetable that he had promised while running for the White House, and on other issues, Obama unapologetically demonstrates that, while campaigners can be simplistic and rigid, responsible officials grapple with complexities and require flexibility.[...] This Iraq speech...represents the defeat of the defeatists.

The Obamaniacs, meanwhile, are demonstrating the acumen I have come to expect of them. I saw the speech in a shop, Friday, and a woman actually danced around shouting "Yay! The war is over!" I suppose she hoped Life Magazine would get a picture of pamphleteer kissing her.

The Iraqi Bloggers

Raed: Thank You Obama!

Raed's post is nearly at the level of that Obama bimbo [Obimbo] in the shop. Willful suspension of disbelief. He soft-pedals the President's commitment to only draw-down troops to 50,000. Essentially, his position is that of the American Obama Movement cheerleaders [Obamonkhees], who were screaming "Bring them all home now" when Bush was the decider: "Yes, this is not what he promised, but this is such a wonderful change!"

This is not "change". This is the Bush policy. He's not going to move all US troops out of Iraq. The Iraqis won't want it either. Are the German's wanting all US troops out? No. It's too lucrative to have them posted there.

Iraqi Mojo: Obama Evolving

Mojo's position is more close aligned to Douglas Feith's. He at least acknowledges what a drastic change this is from the President's campaign rhetoric. But I have one quibble. ~~Mojo says~~:

"His speech on Friday, announcing a faster timetable for withdrawal of combat troops, also reflects his own evolution as a leader."

This not "faster timetable". It is merely a publicly declared timetable. If Bush had announced this six months ago, the Obamaniacs and Raed would not have considered this a move forward.

IraqPundit: U.S. Out of Iraq

IP finds 2011 to be a reasonable date for a total US withdrawal [granting the presumption they will do that] but realistically notes that the decision is perilous:

Iraq certainly can manage its own affairs. But it would be naive to think that Iran is not quietly planning its move for January 2012. In the West, people tend to look at next week or next month. In the East, people look at the next decade or the one after.

Nibras Kazimi: The Enemy Has a Vote

Nibras says that it doesn't matter what Obama says. He says that all the troops (beyond, I suppose, a small number of unobtrusive advisors) will leave Iraq in the fall of 2010, because the Status Of Forces Agreement referendum will fail.

The SOFA referendum won’t pass. It will likely undergo the same mechanism by which the referendum on the constitution (2005) was conducted: it SOFA is rejected (over 50 percent) by three provinces, then it is rendered null. This is a very likely possibility, and it shall be very difficult to any political party, even ones in the ascendancy such as Maliki’s, to make the case to the public to vote for SOFA. Amendments to SOFA, or a whole new SOFA will likewise be very difficult to pull off, both politically and legislatively.Which means that in one year’s time after the date of the referendum (…likely to be around the end of the summer), all U.S. troops, combat or otherwise, would have to depart Iraqi soil.

Other Issues

Sam at Interpreter's Life tells how he came to become a US military interpreter.

Shaggy discusses his father's plans to find him a wife.

Eye Raki discusses the possibility of Maliki and the Sadrists forming a new coalition government that leaves Allawi and the SIIC in opposition.

Love, Sex, Honor And Shame: Modern Women In Iraq

2009-02-26T02:42:00.000-08:00

Sleeping Nude by Marcus Moura (Brazil)

He raped me in the train on our wedding day. I was 13 years old. I'd met him face to face for the first time that day; we were on our way to the honeymoon in Basra. I started screaming I was so scared, but I stopped when he started hitting me... (Zahra)

If you have the opportunity to only read one book in English about the status of modern women in Iraq, your choice should be Sana al-Khayyat's Honour & Shame: Women In Modern Iraq. The book is a ground-breaking, in-depth study conducted over several years among the women of Iraq by al-Khayyat, who was born in the country and holds a PhD in Sociology from Keele University.

In Honour & Shame: Women In Modern Iraq, Al-Khayyat presents a testimony to the world of Iraqi women. Ranging from executives to illiterate housewives, the women speak with frankness of sex and marriage, physical and mental violence, the fear of scandal and their indoctrination into the ideology of honour and shame.

Iraq, as al-Khayyat tells us, is a patriarchal society reinforced by Bedouin traditions. I would call Iraq a socially-dysfunctional society, where the rules, mores and rituals of Arabic culture and Islamic tradition form a heady syncretism which seeks, keeps and binds Iraq's women.

If you follow the Iraqi blogosphere, there is a lack of illumination on women's issues. The secrets Iraqi women have to tell, for the most part, are kept hidden from us, with only bloggers like Marshmallow, Riverbend, Layla Anwar and Touta discussing such topics. That is why, Sana al-Khayyat's Honour & Shame: Women In Modern Iraq is a hidden gem, a shining revelation, as the Morning Star tells us, which Lives and throbs with the yearning of Arab women to be free of oppressive constraint and submission.

Read it and weep. Here are some of the highlights (or lowlights) of the book:

Honor and Sexual Conduct in the Arab World

...the most important connotation of honour in the Arab world is related to the sexual conduct of women. If a woman is immodest or brings shame on her family by her sexual conduct, she brings shame and dishonor on all kin. The subtle differences in the notion of honour are reflected in Arabic, which has two words for honour. One, sharaf, means honour in the wider sense; the other, ird is so important that he will swear by it like the name of God; a man might swear by the ird of his sister...

Why the Arab World Encourages Marriage

Writing on the family, Nahas ('The Family in the Arab World', Marriage and Family Living) has explained the main reasons behind the encouragement of marriage in the Arab world. He notes that while Islam urges people to marry, the social climate of most Arab countries arouses sexual impulses early, although tradition still enforces sexual segregation. The marriage of girls also relieves the family of worrying about their virginity. Finally, the desire for children is very strong among the Arabs.

Love, Iraqi Style

There may be love, but it is not expressed; certainly not in the ways it is expressed in the West. It is considered to be very private, even for husbands and wives; they are not encouraged to show love to each other in front of other people--it would be considered dishonourable on the part of the wife and a weakness if it came from the husband... Husbands assume that for them to show affection might 'spoil' the wife, who would take advantage of them and become demanding.

Iraqi Women are Much More Tied to Their Natal Family Than Their Husband

Iraqi women feel that they belong to their natal family and have much stronger ties with it than with their husband. This might also explain why women tend not to develop any emotional feelings towards their husband; they see him as an outsider who might leave them at any time, whereas the natal family will never do so.

Iraqi Women, Sex and God

Iraqi women are taught to believe that to treat their husbands well in bed, that is, obey demands for sexual intercourse, fulfils their duty to God. Because of this, they put up with their husband's bad behaviour, and try to please him just the same.

Iraqi Men are Unfaithful, So Keep a Watchful Eye on Them

Girls are also taught from an early age that men in general are unfaithful and not to be trusted. By keeping an watchful eye on her husband, treating him well and trying to please him, particularly in bed, a wife will ensure that he remains faithful to her.

Iraqi Women, You Better Think Twice About Giving Birth to a Female Child

My mother had six children: three boys and three girls. When she had her last child--the third baby girl--my uncle was so angry, he beat my mother, causing her grievous body harm which resulted in her death a few months later. (Labiba)

The Most Important Role of Iraqi Parents is to Insure Their Daughter Remains a Virgin Until Her Wedding Day

Young females are socialized to fear men and sexuality and to protect their virginity at all costs. They are taught to avoid strenuous exercise, jumping from heights, or sitting on sharp edges, in order to keep their hymen intact. Correspondingly, the parents' most important duty is to ensure their daughter remains a virgin until her wedding day. That part of a girl's body is considered to be more important even than her eyes, arms or lower limbs.

It's Hard For an Iraqi Woman to Achieve Sexual Satisfaction With an Iraqi Man, or Even Know Where Her G Spot Is...

Iraqi men tend to have minimal knowledge of the female anatomy, and they either do not know how or do not wish to arouse their wives... Men's expectations of sex are high, but since women have no experience and their husbands have no interest in making it pleasurable, it is hard for them to achieve sexual satisfaction. It is important to stress that men themselves do not wish to initiate their wives into sexual fulfilment because they believe it will make them promiscuous.

Hide Your Eyes, Women's Underwear Is Present

Clothes are normally dried on a washing line on the roof, to keep them away from the eyes of inquisitive neighbours. It would be particularly shameful for women's underwear to be seen. This custom often necessitates a woman climbing two long flights of stairs to take clothes up to the roof, rather than using a line in the garden.

The Age Of No Hope

When sexually active, women are constantly controlled and watched until they reach what is called sin al-yaas, the age of no hope. This social belief affects every aspect of women's lives at this age, as some women enter menopause at 40. Starting from this age, and particularly if a woman is widowed, she will wear dark coloured clothes, in most cases black, for the rest of her life. She will wear very little or no make-up and restrict her activities, in order to be imraa wa koora, wa razima, 'a respectable woman.'

Male Sexuality in Iraq is Sacred And Noticed. Female Desire and Passion Must Be Silenced

Society operates a double standard as far as morals are concerned, recognizing only male sexuality. Moreover, this sexuality is regarded as sacred. The idea that women's sexuality and passionate nature, once aroused, will prove too strong to control, and could threaten the whole of the social system, is still a powerful force behind the treatment of women and the behaviour of men... If a woman feels any sexual desire it must not be admitted, even to her husband.

Walad Majnoon Wala Binit Katoon

An Iraqi proverb runs, walad majnoon waala binit katoon, meaning, 'A crazy boy is preferable to a katoon girl.' Katoon describes the concept of the most perfect girl imaginable, one who possesses all the 'feminine' virtues and household skills as well as being beautiful and charming.

Differentiation Between Males and Females Starts Even Before Birth

A phrase frequently used to congratulate a newly married couple is, 'We wish you prosperity and sons.' When a woman becomes pregnant, she will hope, throughout her pregnancy, for a boy. If the baby is a girl, everybody she knows will pity her and feel unhappy for her. In Iraq when people visit the mother of a baby girl, they frequently say, 'It's all right. The womb which held a girl will hold a boy next.' Or, if they are trying to be considerate, and the attitude of the in-laws threatens to become hostile, they might say, 'Never mind. At least the mother's all right.'

Do Iraqi Men Still Slaughter a Cat on their Honeymoon Night?

Another fast-disappearing traditional practice is the bridegroom's slaughtering a cat as the bride enters the bridal chamber before they have sexual intercourse. This was done to scare the bride into obedience, based on the belief that if she were to disobey the husband's demands for sex on the first night of marriage, it might make him permanently impotent.

Do Women In Iraq Still Know Very Little About Their Future Husbands? Perhaps So...

Most women in Iraq still know nothing more about their future husband than his name and appearance, some information about his family and financial status, and particularly his level of education. They know almost nothing about his personality...

Child Raising: Iraqi Ideas of Manhood and Womanhood

In order to fit ideas of manhood, boys are taught to treat younger children as inferior, though ill-treatment of young children is not acceptable from girls, who should always be kind and calm. Whereas boys are taught to be strong and not to be afraid, girls are constantly reminded of fear, and of their physical weakness. They are expected to control themselves and their needs and not be demanding... Boys, on the other hand, are taught to demand what they want and ask for it directly.

Submissiveness is Valued in Iraqi Girls

Because a girl is often awarded for being being submissive and obedient, she will tend to develop a passive or negative personality. The family will make decisions about every area of her life: what she eats, the clothes she wears, how she spends her time, and also more important matters such as education and marriage.

Yes, Iraqi Men and Women are Emotional, But Only Women Pay the Penalty for it

Women as well as men are socialized to be emotional, though in different ways. Men exaggerate their emotions (sometimes, as we have seen, by shouting at their wives and children), but this is not perceived as a sign of weakness. With women, however, although society encourages them to be emotional, this can sometimes work against them, since they are identified with traditional, backward practices such as crying for death... One of the strongest reasons given for excluding women from positions of decision-making is that they are over-emotional.

It's Socially Acceptable for Arab Men to Show Irritable Angry Behaviour

At all-male gatherings, men tend to be aggressive and quarrelsome. If a man is aggressive in the street, this may lead to a general fight. In the case of a car accident, the drivers might get out and start punching each other. Men also tend to make loud sexual comments about any woman in the street who is not veiled or who wears revealing clothing. This behaviour is more common among poor, uneducated people. When educated men need to release their aggressive feelings they do so mainly at home.

Can You Use Your American Express Card in Falluja?

2009-02-08T10:10:00.000-08:00

There's no question now that Iraq has stabilized and that General Petraeus's surge has been a success. On January 31 Iraqis voted in provincial elections and will vote again at the end of the year in parliamentary elections. Last month casualties for Iraqis and Americans in Iraq was at its lowest recorded since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. But, judging by a NYTimes article from last Friday (Falluja’s Strange Visitor: A Western Tourist), it may be some time before international tourists start visiting Iraq.

In this article, we follow the attempt of one Italian man, Luca Marchio, to visit Baghdad and Falluja as a tourist. One can understand his reasoning. There are very few countries in the world where you won't find tourists (especially Germans, Australians, and Americans), so why shouldn't he stroll around a couple cities in the land of the Tigris and the Euphrates, guidebook, map, and camera in hand?

“I am a tourist. I want to see the most important cities in the country. That is the reason why I am here now,” he said in heavily accented English. “I want to see and understand the reality because I have never been here before, and I think every country in the world must be seen.”

Reasonable enough, right? Well, the Italian made his way to the Middle East, entered Iraq through Kurdistan, and then took a taxi to Baghdad, getting dropped off at the Coral Palace Hotel. For Bashar Yacoub, the manager of the hotel, Mr. Marchio was his first international visitor since 2003. Mr. Yacoub warned Mr. Marchio that Baghdad wasn't yet safe enough for tourism, but the Italian insisted on seeing what Baghdad had to offer, so for an extra forty dollars Mr. Yacoub had someone from the hotel drive him around the city for the day. But then, the next day, to the objections of all of the staff at the Coral Palace Hotel, Mr. Marchio decided to visit Falluja, taking an intercity bus.

Within hours, the hotel staff received a call from the Falluja police. “I wasn’t surprised when they called,” Mr. Yacoub said. The police told him that they had found Mr. Marchio in a minibus next to a woman who sold fresh milk, yogurt and cream door to door. “They were very worried about him,” Mr. Yacoub said.

Mr. Marchio did get to Falluja, but according to the officials, for his own safety, by the next day he was placed on a plane heading out of Baghdad.

When will Iraq be safe for tourists?

The Coral Palace’s reception manager considered the question. He pointed out that there already were Shiite religious tourists in Najaf and Karbala. “But the general tourists, no,” he said. “I can’t guess when because now the security situation is good, but you know this country, you can expect anything any minute.”

UPDATE: I just found a very good follow-up article on Mr. Marchio's visit to Iraq: My Italian Job.

*

Salam Pax checks in from Baghdad, writing that while the complete results from the provincial elections have yet to be released, we can identify losers and winners (So, how was it for you?).

But we can still see who the biggest loser is: The Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution. Even with this super impressive name they seem to have pissed off enough people in the last year for the electorate to decide to punish them.

The biggest winner: Al-Maliki. If there was even a night in which our PM should have gone out and gotten seriously drunk it was the night the preliminary results were announced. In 10 out of 14 provinces his bloc came out on top and in two of Iraq’s biggest provinces, Baghdad and Basra, his bloc will get the majority of seats on the councils. (Al Maliki doesn’t drink, so I got drunk for him, any excuse for a binge eh!).

Farmer Shaggy Comes to Town and Votes

2009-02-04T12:49:00.000-08:00

Shaggy returned to Baghdad from the farm down south in time to vote in the provincial elections. After spending a good part of the day trying to locate where he was supposed to vote, Shaggy finally inked the finger. But, in truth, Shaggy had other things on his mind (That's All?!).

Choosing to vote was kind of a last minute decision for me. I did kind of screw up by not checking out the candidates that were on the list that I was voting for. But I don't think anyone on that list is going to get a seat anyway. What's bothering me more than that is that whilst walking from one polling station to another I noticed a sign suggesting that a bank is going to be built over a public park that's in the middle of a residential area. The park is a mess right now, but it has so much potential, because unlike most other parks it's not in the middle of nowhere or bordered by busy streets. It's also the place where I got high the very first time.

Yeah, maybe future generations of Iraqi stoners will make pilgrimages to the park where Shaggy first got blasted. Why not? It works for me. I'd definitely do a bong-hit with Michael Phelps in Shaggy's Stoner Park.

*

Meanwhile, Salam Pax corrects Andrew Sullivan about the election returns in Anbar. Earlier, using figures from a blog called Musings from Iraq, Sullivan had written that the results in Anbar were not very good, but Salam corrects him, using statistics coming from the election board (Sunni Side Down ... I think not).

I think the post on Musings on Iraq is diminishing what Iraq’s Sunnis might have done this time around. They didn’t only come out to participate in the democratic process in big numbers but more importantly shunning fundamentalism in favour of more centrist parties. And I hope that Andrew Sullivan takes another look at the numbers and see that saying ‘Sunnis didn’t show up in convincing numbers’ just ain’t fair.

Later, Andrew Sullivan did acknowledge the figures posted by Salam.

*

If you want to know just what kind of asses the editors at the New York Times can be, look no further than the sub-head they used for the responses published from three Iraqi bloggers (Salam, Mohammed from Last of Iraqis, and Bookish): The Thrill Is Gone.

Just a few years ago Saddam Hussein received a vote of 100% thumbs-up from millions of Iraqis in a gun-to-head referendum. Despite the best efforts of the New York Times crew to force the US out of Iraq early, Iraq has now stabilized and turned into a success. And so what do the editors at the New York Times use to frame those responses from Iraqis who voted in a democratic election? The thrill is gone, they summarize, referencing that old B.B. King blues number about the end of passion and love. That's the kind of assholes the editors at the New York Times are.

*

Democracy in the Heart of the Middle East

2009-01-31T10:22:00.000-08:00

Iraqis have gone to the polls today and we're starting to get some responses from the Iraqi bloggers. Sami (Skies) writes (Return of the Violet Fingers):

In the voting room I saw very beautiful women. They were all smiling. They were very very kind as if from heaven. I voted. They said: "Thank you". I said: "thank you" with a smile and went walking. I saw many families walking happy. The father's and mother's index fingers are colored by that ink. I saw him coming. We greeted each other with kisses like Iraqis usually do. I went back with him waiting while he voted. He didn't ask me for whom I voted. Nor I did ask him. We are Iraqis with different views and this is our way to show respect to each other. We went back walking slowly and talking about memories of how our quarter was so beautiful before hoping that it will regain its charm while we were proud of our violet fingers.

*

Salam Pax, using Twitter, has given us updates throughout the day. Here is a selection from earlier today:

Polls open now for 7hrs and no news of any violence. Now that's what i call progress.

is is going very smoothly here in central Baghdad.. almost a non-event, no fear, no worry.. which in itself is remarkable.

Polling stations in Iraq close in two minutes. Could this be our frist incident free elections?

Voting in Iraq ends. No bombs, no deaths.. just people voting. The grumbling about fraud has started but, hey, it's all been violence free!

These were local council elections, John, it was all about security, rebuilding, jobs, etc. Obama didn't get mentionned much

No matter who wins in these elections.. Iraqis were able to vote peacefully and that's a big deal

*

Caesar of Pentra describes his day and trip to the voting booth (2009 Provincial Elections).

[I]t's 6:09 pm Baghdad local time. The voting is over. Luckily, no serious accident has been registered. Again, Everyone honest and wants to serve Iraq and intends to bulid Iraq to be a powerful and prosper country, I wish them all the success to achieve that goal.

*

A LOOK BACK TO 2002: Saddam Hussein Wins One-Man Race (CBS)

Iraq declared Saddam Hussein the winner Wednesday - by an 11 million-to-0 margin - in a war-shadowed referendum on his two-decade military rule, sending celebratory gunfire crackling from the streets and rooftops of Baghdad.

The 100 percent turnout, 100 percent 'yes' vote shows all Iraqis are poised to defend Saddam against American forces, the country's No. 2 man said.

"If they come, we will fight them in every village, and every house," said Izzat Ibrahim, vice chairman of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council, announcing results on what Iraq billed as a people's referendum on keeping Saddam in power another seven years.

Once More Into The Breach of Democracy, Dear Friends

2009-01-31T06:40:00.000-08:00

The Iraqis are at it again! Good luck to them and Godspeed.

A long time ago, in the dark days when Omar of Twenty Four Steps to Liberty was hoping to publicly hang 1000 insurgents and install a new strongman in Iraq (2006, will look for the post), I gave him the solemn advice to hold his nose and back the current government. This was NOT a popular idea with him at the time.

Anyway, now that the dust and debris are beginning to clear in Iraq, I have a little vote of my own for today:

Just curious.

Praise Öbama

As Much Democracy As You Can Handle

2009-01-24T12:38:00.000-08:00

In one more week, on January 31, 2009, Iraqis will vote in provincial elections. Some of the Iraqi bloggers have been following and commenting on the campaigns inside Iraq. Touta, for example, offers her readers a summary of some of the political rallies that she has attended so far ("Politicians in the ring.Round one.Ding!"). At one rally she listens to a candidate running as a secular Iraqi, who addressed the audience, as Touta reports here:

"My friends, religion has no place in politics. No place! If we want democracy, true democracy, then we let everyone freely practice their religion at home, while the country is run by educated, unbiased individuals."

"We need to take down the concrete barriers. Qabeehat. (ugly)"

An old man replies quietly: "Like you then." No one else heard comment.

I choke supressing laughter.

*

Mohammed (Last of Iraqis) is one of those guys who, after a week of rain, would complain on the day the weather cleared because the brightness of the sun made him squint. So you can just imagine his interpretation of campaign politics inside Iraq ("Let's talk about candidates and elections"):

Thousands of people have became candidates, men and women who we never heard of, who have done nothing to Iraq, who haven't participated in any political, humanitarian or social events…wherever you go in Baghdad you would see big posters occupying every inch of every wall or concrete block with a photo (mostly) of an ugly person with an evil look in his eyes and a catchy slogan, more empty shells which if wanted to be filled it will be filled with the love of money, hatred to others and corruption and the last thing to care about is the good of Iraq and Iraqis….like the Shahristani (oil minister) with his recent techniques to satisfy his masters in Iran when he blocked the support of the black oil to the Iraqi bricks companies which lead to the absence of bricks in the market and that's when the Iranian brick companies saved the situation and started exporting their bricks to Iraq and fill the markets with!!! OH, thank you Iran for saving us, what a disgusting situation.

Yeah, what gives the right of these little people no one has ever heard of to run for office in Iraq?

*

Salam Pax is back in Baghdad, reporting on what he found at Sistani's website:

What is interesting is in his advice for us on how to choose the best candidate to vote for. He doesn’t mention the need for the candidate to be a devout Muslim – shock horror – more important for al-Sistani is the candidate’s honesty and ability to serve the people.

He might be a beardy Ayatullah and all but, I tell you, given half a chance al-Sistani can be a cool beardy Ayatullah.

*

DOMESTIC HUMOR:

What if you BUILT A SHRINE BUT NO ONE CAME?

Obama shrines unattended?

Say it ain't so!

///Rhuslancia, shouldn't you change your chant from Praise Obama! to Remainder Obama!?

*

UPDATE: How is Iraq doing these days? Check out C.H.'s fine interview with Eye-Raki (Hayder Al-Khoei), who recently returned to Iraq for a visit.

*

Hey, Hey, What Can You Say...

2009-01-18T16:23:00.000-08:00

Night Owl by gravityx9.

Salam,
LOL, I’m thinking of starting an Internet petition to have you
rename this blog, Last Of The Gay Iraqis. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Mister Ghost to Salam Pax

Hey, hey, what can you say...

...Did you see the plane crash in New York? No casualties, amazing. I never trusted those Canadian Jihadi Geese. Any ways, I was thinking, if that plane went down in Iraq, they would shoot the passengers, steal the aircraft, and smuggle it into either Kurdistan or Iran. Anywhere else in the Middle East, there would be fights over the life preservers, and people would be pushed into the water and drown.

...The self-promoting Michael Yon reminds me of Raed Jarrar - always threatening with the lawsuits... Frankly the embedded reporters in Iraq, did not impress me. It was after all, a very synthetic environment they operated in. Unembedded, as with Steven Vincent, Sunshine of Mosul, and Queen Amidala reporting right straight from the Heart of Darkness, their coverage was worth reading.

...Speaking of Sunshine, is she not the Taylor Swift of Iraq? A fast-rising, young prodigy whose words cut across all barriers and resonate with an American and worldwide audience? Most definitely so. Here's the great Taylor singing one of my recent favorites, Our Song...

...What's the worse thing that can occur to you in the Religious Apartheid Kingdom of the Saud? Work as a Filipino houseboy with all those repressed homosexual Saudi men trying to paw you and more? That's a pretty bad state of being. Perhaps, be one of the millions of frustrated Saudi woman, who are not allowed to drive, and who decides to say, "Bleep it" to the rules, and takes the car out for a spin. Which results in the death of a couple of people, because the woman had no experience, and wearing an abbaya while driving is an accident waiting to happen. That indeed is pretty awful. And then there's Hamoud bin Saleh, a Saudi blogger who converted to Christianity and announced it on his blog Saudi Christian. The Saudi authorities did not find this amusing at all. They arrested Hamoud, blocked his blog inside the Tragic Kingdom, and jailed the young blogger at the infamous Eleisha political prison in Riyadh, a prison which in 2004 witnessed the arrest of the reformists Matrouk el Falih, Ali el Domini and Eissa al Hamed. Now, with the world's attention focused on Gaza, he may suffer a fatal work related accident inside the gaol.

... Free Boy George, Free Boy George, LOL ala Free Mumia. Well, here's the Boy at his pre-handcuffs best with The Crying Game...

...Barack Obama's ascension to the Presidency has really lowered the bar as far as future American leaders are concerned. Now, you can do coke, attend a racist church for twenty years, hang out with terrorists, emerge out of one of the most corrupt political systems in the world, conceal your medical records, promise anything and everything to one and all, engage in campaign contribution fraud, be fawned over by the press... the list of flaws and fallacies is breathtaking.

...For all you Muntadhar al-Zeidi haters (you know who you are), LOL, some of his prison guards threw a party for his 30th birthday and brought him a birthday cake. I wonder if his cake had 30 candles and he could make a wish? Now, that would have never happened during Saddam's time. But, seriously, Maliki should just pardon the guy and let it be an amusing end to President Bailouts' tenure.

...If you're curious as to how American journalists are reacting to the economic crisis, closures, and management machinations affecting many of the nation's print media, be sure to check out Angry Journalists.com for some spirited angst.

...The big story in the Middle East: No, not the Israel-Hamas War, but the condition of Hamas TV's Pioneers of Tomorrow show Giant Jew-Eating Bunny, Assud. It's a cliffhanger folks, as to whether Assud will live or die, although personally, I was more a fan of Nahoul the Jew-hating bee, who expired in a Gaza hospital, the victim of an Israeli Fly-Swatter Missile. Here is, what may or may not be, Assud's final moments...

Return of the Baghdad Blogger

2009-01-16T21:21:00.000-08:00

After a two-year absence from Iraq, Salam Pax has now not only returned to his hometown along the Tigris but has started to blog regularly, something he hasn't done since 2006 on his last blog, Shut Up You Fat Whiner. On his new blog, Salam Pax: The Baghdad Blogger, Salam reports that the security situation in Baghdad has indeed improved (On Security):

About three years ago while making a film for Newsnight I was filming an Iraqi army manned checkpoint. They didn’t mind me filming but they all put on something to cover their faces, balaclavas or scarves with dark sunglasses, just anything that would conceal their identity. The soldiers I talked to told me how they would never leave their homes wearing uniforms. The uniform is taken out of the house in a plastic bag until they are out of their neighbourhoods.

Not today. There are more checkpoints than before. Every bridge has at least one at each end. There are checkpoints in and out of many districts and Iraqi police and army control all of them. And not a single balaclava in sight and none of the anxiety and nervousness you used to feel before.

On his Twitter account, Salam sums up his Friday in Baghdad:

Fun day in Baghdad = Lunch at a nice restaurant, a drive through the city, a family b-day gathering and later drinks @home.

*

As another measure of increased stability, Iraq Pundit notes that Iraqis are buying cars faster than they can be imported, citing a LAT article on the subject. This optimism has also been corroborated by Iraqis that Iraq Pundit has kept in touch with (Developments in Iraq):

While nobody's reporting that all's well in Iraq, improvements are undeniable. In my own social circle some of the most anti-American, anti-invasion professionals have returned to Baghdad. They had left in 2003, and now they're back in Baghdad to help return the country to normal.

Iraqis are looking forward to voting at the end of the month. Many more now understand the importance of the elections, vowing never to boycott the vote ever again.

*

UPDATE: While Salam Pax rides around Baghdad, Touta spends the afternoon with her family going to a restaurant and shopping. She too, like Salam, notes the signs of hope in Baghdad (Silent Secrets of a blossoming Baghdad).

First of all, I have to admit, there has not been one day where i have been happy with electricity/water/safety in Baghdad. But you have a distinct feeling that things will improve. You see people smiling at each other now. Shopkeepers sing rather than cry over the loss of someone, or complain about the masked men.

A million fairy lights illuminate the dark that once was. The generators hum a melodious tune in the background. Now when the generators run out of benzin, or the electricity is turned off, instead of the curses and prayers, candles float around flickering as everyone patiently waits while cracking jokes.

Its friday, and there are no traffic!! Correction:less traffic. On the way back, I walked out the car and wandered while the queue did not move. I sat in the front seat, and others got dizzy as I constantly turned to try to take everything in. Cars are suddenly new and shiny. Oh, and new types of hummer have been brought into that shop. People buy them and bounce through the streets with Eminem blaring toy soldiers or some other song. Also, another improvement, I see more girls. They walk around in groups smilling and stopping at juice parlours.

Salam Pax Twittering Back to Baghdad

2009-01-13T10:27:00.000-08:00

Salam Pax, now with a Master's in International Journalism from City University in London (photo of Salam the Earnest Student), is currently in transit back to Baghdad. You can follow him through his Twitter account. I'm not sure how much he's going to use Twitter, but for right now it's the only way to read any of his reactions to his return to Iraq after a year's absence. Thankfully, Salam still has his sense of humor:

Guardian/G2 want 2k words on why I'm going back to Baghdad.. all I can think of is 'I miss the mad spiralling decent into Baghs airport' 5:37 AM Jan 11th from twitterrific

*

UPDATE: Salam Pax has just published a piece at the Guardian:

"I want Baghdad to feel like home again."

*

Salam's friend Ghaith Abdul-Ahad (G. in Baghdad for the old-timers) has continued to write for the Guardian and recently published an article describing a visit to Iran as someone who grew up during the Iran-Iraq War (Brothers in Arms).

One day I stood with my father in downtown Baghdad, watching a parade of Iraqi military trucks packed with Iranian prisoners of war pass by. I didn't feel sorry for the defeated men in tattered, khaki uniforms and shaved heads. I was just scared of them. A few years later, the TV broadcast similar images of broken, khaki-clad soldiers, squatting in the desert with their hands tied behind them - this time, however, they were the defeated Iraqi armies.

Our state propaganda machine portrayed the Iranians as cowards, evil creatures, "the worms of the earth". The Iraqis, we were told, were fighting another glorious battle against the Persians, just as the early Muslims had done in the seventh century.

It was this religious imagery, and those pictures of defeated men, that filled my head when I went to Tehran this autumn, some 20 years after that war, and I soon came to realise that the same religious symbols, sometimes even the same verses of the Qur'an, were used in the same way on the other side of the border.

*

Meanwhile, Anarki-13 reports on his new life in Sweden (Ahem!):

Leisure: hmm. well, me myself its enough to go walk around Stockholm :) I've been to a couple of parties as well, Arabs and Swedes.

the weather fits me to a tee. almost always freezing my ass off, which i like! even in the hottest day of Summer it didnt peak much above 30. in winter its 3 o'clock and its already dark! i LOVE IT! cant say enough good things about it! (most Iraqi, having a disposition towards warmer climate, would like no less than to strangle me with my own intestines for saying this about the weather. So many are as depressed as hammered shit)

oh and i started training again, it costs an arm and a leg, but it is worth it! next week is the end-course grading exam, so i should probably prepare for it, i guess.
Music, Movies, and Books: Dark, Dark, and Dark! One day something just clicked inside my head and i started listening to Slayer again, and i have no regrets!

Movies: many, not ALL are dark, i LOVED "Enchanted" (yeah, i did) and liked "Hellboy 2" much more than the overhyped "Dark Knight"
.
i still refuse to take Batman seriously before he starts using guns.
martial arts my ASS, i am a martial artist. and i say guns win, EVERY TIME.

In Which I Weigh in on Israel & Palestine

2009-01-11T00:47:00.000-08:00

I regret this post even as I begin writing it. Israel & Palestine must be the world's most intractable conflict now, maybe ever, in the world's most disputed region now, maybe ever. In fact, check out this animation from mapsofwar.com on control of the Middle East:

So, I try to avoid thinking too much about events over there. It just s*cks, nothing I can do about it. I do think that long term, some kind of Palestinian state is needed to peel the moderates from both sides away from the extremists from both sides. That may stem the violence eventually, but there is certainly enough excess hate in the area so that a rational solution is impossible in my lifetime at least.

Anyway, the current conflict between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Hate And Murder All Subhuman joos (HAMAS) allowed me to enumerate in my mind something I have known for quite some time:

1. Israel, with its modern military, sophisticated weapons, and even nuclear bombs, has the capability to turn its many enemies' territories into glass, but is not inclined to do so.

2. HAMAS, and by extension other violent opponents of Israel, with their Katyushas, homicide bombers, and desire to cause and politically leverage Palestinian civilian casualties, do not have the capability to do much damage to Israel, but would turn it into glass if only they could.

I understand that we in the self-doubting West do like to cheer for the "underdog" or the scrappy rebels "fighting for freedom", but it's still strange to see people protesting on behalf of people who aspire to be mass murderers, if only they had the capability, or allowing themselves to become useful idiots in HAMAS' efforts to leverage the only potentially effective tactic they have- international outrage.

Mark Steyn, in this article, points out some of the underlying joo-hatred that may be in play, and makes an interesting observation regarding Israel's founding:

So, as I said, forget Gaza. And instead ponder the reaction to Gaza in Scandinavia, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and golly, even Florida. As the delegitimization of Israel has metastasized, we are assured that criticism of the Jewish state is not the same as anti-Semitism. We are further assured that anti-Zionism is not the same as anti-Semitism, which is a wee bit more of a stretch. Only Israel attracts an intellectually respectable movement querying its very existence. For the purposes of comparison, let’s take a state that came into existence at the exact same time as the Zionist Entity, and involved far bloodier population displacements. I happen to think the creation of Pakistan was the greatest failure of post-war British imperial policy. But the fact is that Pakistan exists, and if I were to launch a movement of anti-Pakism it would get pretty short shrift.

So I will not hold my breath for any kind of a workable solution to come from the latest chapter in the awfully thick book that describes this conflict.

You know what I'd like to see though? A Sons of Palestine movement. Of course I'm dreaming. But couldn't you see a situation where some Palestinian guy looks out his window and sees HAMAS setting up a Katyusha battery and says "Hey dummies! Don't do that here! Or better yet, don't do it at all! If you manage to kill anyone with your random rocket fire, it will likely be civilians. That is probably wrong, and bad. Plus, you are more likely to cause Israel to return fire, which endangers me and my family!"

Unfortunately, for the moment it is precisely that response that HAMAS hopes to garner, and the Palestinians killed as a result are just welcome tools towards their objective. The day when such acts are no longer tolerated by locals or the world community seems far off. Nothing for me to do but,

Praise Öbama

Reading Resolution 1859

2009-01-09T10:17:00.000-08:00

For more than five years the Fadhil brothers have been writing about Iraq, through the good times and the bad times. Two years ago it looked like the multiple insurgencies just might rip Iraq apart, but thanks to General Petraeus's surge and the cooperation and help given by the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people, today those insurgencies -- both Al Qaeda and Sadr's militias -- have been defeated. The statistics speak for themselves. In the last several months, more American forces have died in non-hostile accidents than through hostile fire, and while there is still an occasional horrific suicide-bomber killing Iraqi civilians the fatalities remain at the lowest recorded.

Today, over at Iraq the Model, Omar and Mohammed Fadhil examine what Resolution 1859 means for Iraqis (New Iraq Emerges from Tyranny and War):

Domestically, the resolution is a blow dealt to all those nostalgic for the totalitarian past. Those people had exhausted their lungs screaming and rallying against a security agreement with the United States. The voice that prevailed at the end was that of Iraq’s elected parliament in choosing to open a new era of cooperation and mutual respect between Iraq and the nation that liberated it from tyranny, and continues to protect its interests as we speak.

They also look squarely at those who have always wanted Iraq to fail, noting that many of them are the same people who championed the guy who threw his shoes at President Bush.

Whereas Arab nationalists and Islamist extremists ended up with a pair of shoes, Iraqis ended up with their sovereignty, democracy, and friendship with the United States. Those hypocrites did not lift a finger to help Iraq at a time of hardship. On the contrary, they used all the means they could muster to bring democratization in Iraq and the Middle East to a halt. But despite the vicious attacks, Iraq and the United States moved hand in hand to overcome the countless obstacles and present the model of reform and democracy that is taking shape with every dispute Iraqis resolve in the parliament and every new brick they lay in a new building.

Many obstacles have indeed been overcome. Surely there will be a few more, but the future for Iraq is now brighter than it has been in some time.

*

Meanwhile Shaggy is back on the farm and about to transfer this year's rice crop to the government silos (Tassweek Time Coming Up). Before that, he had a week or so vacation in Baghdad, where he was able to buy a bag of mediocre weed. For the old-timers, you know that Nahida is always snooping around at Shaggy's place in Baghdad. Yep, she caught him blasting in his room:

The only bad thing about getting high at home was that I was often paranoid that Nahida was going to catch me and make a big deal out of it. She did catch me, she walked into my room just after I had finished blazing one and she picked up all the roaches that I had poorly hid on the window sill. Thankfully she did not make a big deal out of it. Maybe she did appreciate how stressed out I was as Od had suggested to me.

That Nahida is a hawk.

*

That Great "Arab Hero" ... um ... What's His Name?

2009-01-06T08:40:00.000-08:00

Even though he threw his shoes at President Bush and was hailed around the Arab world as their "hero" just a few weeks ago, does anyone now even remember the guy's name or know anything about what has happened to him?

No, we don't.

But if you're interested in learning about those who are the silent heroes of Iraq, you can still find them in the blogosphere. Spend the day, for example, with Sami, a psychiatrist currently living in Baghdad who has been on our blogroll for a long time. In one of his latest entries, "Happy Poetic Hair Cut," you will learn more about the daily life in Iraq than you ever will from the journalist whose name we can no longer remember.

I went for my hair cut in Al Rasheed street. From all the barber shops in Baghdad I chose a classic one. It was the barber shop of the Beatles fans in the 70s as one colleague said to me one day in 2006. I went there once and found 4 men above 50 running the shop. They are calm, slow, and silent. There are always some old Arabic songs played on their TV screen. Um Kalthum songs are the most common. I cannot change them now. All of them had cut my hair at least once. But sooner me and him, the third chair one, knew that I should always come and sit in his chair cause he will know what I want without talking. The other three men know that I will wait my turn to have a hair cut in that third chair. The price of the hair cut is the lowest in Baghdad in their wonderful shop. They don't start talking at all, but if you talk they would talk with you for a while seriously and kindly. Then they will go back to their silence waiting for you if wanna talk again. Sometimes they are visited by a friend of them when they will start talking spontaneously with him a little. Their friends always don't stay too long.

After his haircut, Sami strolls over to Al Mutanabbee Street, the booksellers' street that had been bombed by the terrorists two years ago. Check out his photos too.

*

UPDATE: Raed Jarrar received an out-of-court settlement of $240,000 in his ACLU T-shirt case. This is PC gone wild. My only solace so far has been to read all the comments over at Breitbart of those who are as outraged and sickened by this outcome as I am.

Thanks to H. Bush for alerting me.

UPDATE II: So how did Raed do it?

It all started back in 2003 when Raed Jarrar started working with all the anti-war groups that had gone to Iraq, making connections that he would use once he arrived in the US two years later through his greencard marriage to Niki Akhavan. Within the first couple weeks in the Bay Area, he was out at San Quentin protesting the murderer Tookie's execution (just like he would protest his dear leader Saddam's capture, trial, and execution). And not long after that he was on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now and marching along with Hollywood liberals like Susan Sarandon and leftards like Code Pink, passing himself off as an "Iraqi expert." His little black book must have been almost full by then, perfect for his next move.

Having already made links to the ACLU, on a flight from New York to San Francisco, he put on a black T-shirt saying "We will not be silent" in Arabic (and English) and wore it into a waiting area at JFK Airport. Judging by the testimonies, he glared at anyone who happened to glance at his T-shirt (it doesn't help that Raed Jarrar looks like a classic ISLAMIC TERRORIST). Of course, the people in the waiting area started to freak, not wanting to die as those on 9/11 did. All of this was part of Raed's master plan. Always the attention whore, he knew that by taunting the people in the waiting room, he would either get some good publicity or maybe even wangle a lawsuit. Customers in the waiting room sought out someone from Jet Blue and told them that they were nervous about the guy was glaring at everyone in the lounge. A representative from Jet Blue and the TSA approached Raed and asked him if he wouldn't mind changing his shirt. Now everything was working perfectly for Raed. Of course, he refused and said that his "free speech" rights were being abridged. A compromise was reached when Raed agreed to wear another T-shirt on top of the "We will not be silent" T-shirt.

As soon as Raed landed back in San Francisco, he went directly to his little black book, contacted the ACLU and began working with on litigation. He also called as many media outlets as possible to set up interviews with them, quickly appearing on Democracy Now. It was a win-win situation for Raed. Through his ACLU connections, the lawsuit was filed. And here's the SHAKEDOWN, the ACLU-style extortion. Because it would cost Jet Blue and the TSA more money to pay for a complete trial, they decided to just settle for as little as possible, that being the $245,000 that the ACLU accepted for Raed. It's a HUGE FUCKING SCAM.

*

All of the Jarrars are now emboldened by this travesty. Khalid writes today to me:

Jeffery, if you had any balls at all, you would post here your personal contact information or your lawyer's information and you will hear from us. its fun to keep suing idiots and making money out of them :) in case you havent heard, we just did recently:
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-won.html

but i dont think you have any balls at all, do you?!

Democracy is fun after all :D

More than anyone else, I blame Niki Akhavan for bringing Raed Jarrar into our country.

[From CMAR II] See RAED & CMAR II: A Correspondence in which Raed attempts to gain CMAR II's personal information in order to launch a nuisance suit.

*

And here's the ULTIMATE KICKER:

UNDER SADDAM HUSSEIN ALL OF THE JARRARS WERE SILENT.

Would Raed Jarrar have EVER worn a T-shirt saying "We will not be silent" during Saddam Hussein's reign of terror?

*

UPDATE III: I thought it would help everyone to have TigerHawk's two analyses of the ACLU T-shirt case available again:

The ACLU sues JetBlue on behalf of a passenger who happens to be an Arab (August 11, 2007).

Lawfare against domestic vigilence: The Jarrar case (Jan 6, 2009).

*

Merry Christmas, Layla Anwar!

2008-12-23T09:17:00.000-08:00

Nothing augments the Holiday Spirit more than following the exchanges on Layla Anwar's blog. Just yesterday an Iraqi commenter wrote to her:

God you make me want to throw up. By you linking all shia's to Iran is by itself a proof of your ignorance. Your posts make me laugh and choke in disgust at the same time. You hail Alzaidi, yet he is SHIA. Wow Layla, you really are one smart woman. I guess you are no different to the Criminal Wahhabis who have destroyed your country.

Cant believe my beloved Iraq gave birth to filth like you.

Layla was quick to respond:

I can already tell you are an imposter, simply Baghdad cannot give birth to donkeys like you.

You are obviously very challenged in your reading and comprehension skills and your own SECTARIAN colors are shining through.

I can already tell you for a fact that you are a shiite piece of shit tied to Iran - one way or another.

And with shiite pieces of shit like yourself, I have no option but to use the pure Iraqi method, two shoes on that dirty hypocritical face of yours and two up your filthy ass.

And in closing I am very sorry my post was not strong enough to drown you in your own vomit and that you did not choke in the process...but insh'Allah you will next time.

Have a good one.

Meanwhile, Arab Advocate, the Iraqi-Texan who claims to stop by Iraqi Mojo's only every few months, is now claiming to be related to Jesus, the King of the Jews:

What do you know about Jesus? I am one of ONLY a handful of people who speaks the same language that Jesus spoke. Jesus is one of my ancestors, and, like I told the others, if he comes back I might be willing to translate what he's saying for you. As an atheist Im not holding my breath, but I guarantee the real Jesus is different than the Amerikkkan heehaw Jesus.

I guess I'm going to have to buddy-up to Arab Advocate now; I may want him to represent me on Judgment Day, seeing how he's a Secret Jew and related to the Jesus Clan.

Merry Christmas, Arab Advocate!

Merry Christmas, Layla Anwar!

*

I Endorse Muntazer al-Zaidi As The Next Iraqi Prime Minister

2008-12-22T19:44:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of Angry -- At Israel -- Arab

One kiss is a dangerous drug,
I get what I deserve, if I dare to fall in love...
Brent Bourgeois

I endorse Muntazer al-Zaidi as the next Iraqi Prime Minister.
This modern day combination of Gandhi and Ron Paul only did what millions of other citizens around the world would have liked to have done.
Throw something at George Bush, the most despised -- and with apparent good reason in many cases -- American President in the current era.
As an American told me, he wished al-Zaidi had a gun and shot Bush.
Which would have taken things a wee bit too far. Assassinations are never a good idea, throwing shoes at and humiliating a leader on the world stage, worked out much better.
Of course, al-Zaidi missed with both shoes, LOL. Well, the Iraqis never had very good aim to begin with. If it was Roger Clemens in his halcyon days before the affair with Mindy McCready, Bush would have never stood a chance.
Muntathar's vox populi appeal is eloquently detailed by everyone's favorite, Sunshine:
Muntathar al Zaidi, is 28 years old Iraqi living in Baghdad, he is the brave journalist who throw his shoes with his heart set on fire and said "this is the good bye kiss this is the revenge of all Iraqis"
Muntathar became a national hero, he didn't fear to speak up his mind, he expressed not only his anger but the anger and frustrated feeling for all of all Iraqis.

I pray he'll be released, and no one will hurt him anymore..

Muntathar in his preppy days - C/O Sunshine

Sunshine further tells us: I don't find what he did strange thing after all horrible events he witnessed as a journalist, after seeing the injured and killed innocents in streets, or after he met the Iraqis who lost their houses or families and other tragic stories ..

When Bush said "it represent his only opinion, but I am sure it don't represent all Iraqis' feelings" all Iraqis proved the opposite by gathering in the streets carrying big signs, saying poems, and supporting Muntathar in every way they can.

Jihad Watch's Robert Spencer takes issue with Sunshine's and other Muslims heroic embrace and popularity of al-Zaidi (Zeidi):

The popularity of Muntadhar al-Zeidi is telling: the shoe-hurler is more popular in Islamic nations today than any Islamic reformer ever has been. The man who subjected President Bush to Arab culture’s ultimate sign of disrespect and contempt is at once more famous and beloved among Muslims than a President who endeavored, whatever may be said of how well-advised or successful his policies have been, to save innumerable Muslim lives by planting free and stable societies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

LOL Robert, the section about, whatever may be said of how well-advised or successful his policies have been, most resonates with the Iraqis dislike, disgruntlement, and disgust with Bush.

And what one can truly say, is that the Iraqis have been dictatored, suppressed, walled in, de-electrified, kidnapped, sanctioned, tortured, shredded, couped, persecuted, freedom-robbed, Sunni-supremacized and Shia-theocracized, altogether boiled and baked to death, over the last 90 years.
Of course most of the torture, coups, persecution, dictators, supremacizing and theocracizing have been committed by the Iraqis themselves, many of whom are apologists -- engaging in scapegoating -- blaming others to shift away attention and responsibility for the misdeeds that they -- clan, tribe, sect, or ethnicity -- are responsible for.
But, as Haider Ala Hamoudi accurately notes in Howling in Mesopotamia: An Iraqi-American Memoir, the US flopped mightily as the sovereign power in Iraq with its inability to guarantee even a basic essential such as security, never mind the lack of electricity, order, and jobs.
So it's not surprising that someone had a I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore! moment.
If al-Zaidi is sentenced to a long prison term -- Abdul Satar Birqadr, a spokesman for Iraq’s High Judicial Council said that al-Zaidi faces up to 15 years in prison -- there may only be one organization with the right clout and credo, who can rescue him:

In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune.

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team.
BRATATATATATATATATATA

So perhaps, Muntazer's days of being a journalist may indeed be all over, as his footwear has been declared a lethal weapon in 29 countries. However, there are rumors that, as part of an upcoming plea bargaining arrangement, al-Zaidi in order to resume his career in Iraq, will be required to conduct all future interviews in the nude after a full body cavity search, by a woman who looks like Muqtada al-Sadr in drag.
And what would have happened to the reporter and his family, had he tossed his shoes at Saddam?

Drew at Ace of Spades offers a likely scenario: Apparently the man and his family were arrested, his wife raped in front of him and then the entire family was thrown screaming into a wood chipper.

However, we should remember that the post invasion period in Iraq has not exactly been a walk in the park for journalists there or even a late night jog at Central Park.

The Committee to Protect Journalists clarifies the dire situation for reporters:

For the sixth consecutive year, Iraq was the deadliest country in the world for the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in its end-of-year analysis. The 11 deaths recorded in Iraq in 2008, while a sharp drop from prior years, remained among the highest annual tolls in CPJ history [...]

Since the beginning of the war in March 2003, 136 journalists and 51 media workers have been killed, making it the deadliest conflict for the press in recent history.

And who is this Muntazer al-Zaidi actually?

He's been derided as a Baathist, a Sadrist, and a Communist.

I know that Gateway Pundit, ITM commentators, and other Right Wing bloggers are saying that he's a Sadrist, a fan of Muqtada al-Sadr, and fond of Iran.

To tell the truth, Seventy Percent of the Iraqi Parliament is fond-of-and-in-the-tank-for-Iran, so why should he be any different?

This Shi'ite Superstar is thought of by many as a true Iraqi nationalist whose bold expression of dissent resonated with the global citizenry, the Arab world, and the Iraqi public. He's the Hero of the Arab world, the most popular man at this particular historical moment.

And he's become the Number One Arab Chick Magnet.

All the Hijab Hotties of Iraq and the Middle East swoon at the mention of his name and sing his song:
Ooo rock me al-Zaidi
Rock me al-Zaidi...
Rock rock rock rock me al-Zaidi
Rock me all the time to the top...
Come on and rock me al-Zaidi

There's even a father in Egypt, who has offered his more-than-willing daughter in marriage to the Iraqi journalist:
CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian man said on Wednesday he was offering his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad on Sunday,

The daughter, Amal Saad Gumaa, said she agreed with the idea. “This is something that would honor me. I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero,” she told Reuters by telephone.
Of course, Amal will have to fight off mon petit papillon, Layla of Anwar, who has more of a tingle in her legs right now for Muntazer al-Zaidi, than Chris Matthews ever did for Chairman Obama.

Yes, Layla flush with excitement, is already wearing a spicy Victoria's Secret lingerie (see below) to entice her al-Zaidi man, as she heads off to Baghdad to dance for his freedom at the Justice Ministry's Shia Torture chamber No. 1, where he's being currently held on a giant meat hook, as the torturers of the Shia Theocratic Regime, pull out his toenails one at a time.

Layla posing in her Victoria's Secrets

And it certainly seems as if he's been tortured:

The investigating judge in the case said last week that Zaidi, who will stand trial on 31 December, was beaten around the face and eyes. Zaidi's brother, Uday, said the journalist suffered worse injuries, including a missing tooth and cigarette burns to his ears, and would sue.

There also appears to be strong evidence that his alleged apology to Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki was coerced and staged:

Uday al-Zaidi said his brother told him the letter was written against his will because he was subjected to torture, including being doused with cold water while naked.

A dead giveaway was the reference to Maliki as "your excellency." The only thing Maliki has proven to be excellent about, is that he excels in mediocrity and sectarianism.

Muntazer al-Zeidi, "hero of the Iraqi People" by Carlos Latuff - translation/image by Asterism

Well, the shoe-thrower's tale is so popular, that even Laura "Hijab" Bush, wife of America's First Islamist-and-shoe-ducking President weighed in on the situation:

President Bush may have been amused by the shoe-throwing incident in Iraq, but first lady Laura Bush was not. "As a wife, I saw it as an assault, and that's what it was," she told USA TODAY during an interview at the White House on Thursday. "So I didn't laugh it off."

Laura, no offense, but George was much safer than your former boyfriend. You know the one, as Debbie Schlussel tells us, you killed:

Laura Bush ran a stop sign and killed her boyfriend, into whom she crashed in an odd freak coincidence. And, yet, she never did a day of jailtime for it.

You think you or I could run a stopsign, commit vehicular manslaughter, and get away with it? Think again. It's negligence, it's manslaughter, and it's not without consequences . . . if you're one of the little people.

But, all in all, it was good to see Bush finally find his weapon(s) of mass destruction:

I think that "shoe" was "the weapon of mass destruction"
Bush attacked Iraq for. He finally found it.
Hesam0000 at Youtube

Yes, indeed.

More Arab Hypocrisy

2008-12-16T07:39:00.000-08:00

Michael Ramirez at Investors Business Daily - cmar ii

Al-Zaidi presumed to speak for the widows of Iraq when he tossed his shoes at President Bush. But who, in fact, is actually killing Iraqis and making widows? Let's take a look.

In the last two weeks, according to Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, 191 Iraqi citizens have been killed, and not one of them by Americans. They were all killed by other Arabs, either as suicide-bombers or gunmen.

Through Iraq Casualty Count, let's take a look at this Reuters roundup of who has been killed in Iraq in the past few days:

* KHAN DHARI - Nine policemen were killed and 31 wounded when a suicide bomber drove a car full of explosives at their checkpoint in Khan Dhari, in the western outskirts of Baghdad, police said. Another police source put the death toll at three, with 30 wounded.>

Nine policemen killed, so possibly nine new widows, right? Killed by an American?

No.

* TARMIYA - A female suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest in the town of Tarmiya, 25 km (15 miles) north of Baghdad, killing the leader of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrol, police said. The man's son was also wounded.

The man killed by an American? The son wounded by an American?

No.

* MOSUL - Gunmen killed seven people from a single family, members of the minority Yazidi sect, when they stormed into their home in the town of Sinjar, west of Mosul. Mosul is 390 km (240 miles) northwest of Baghdad, police said.

Seven minority Yazidi killed by an American?

No.

* MOSUL - Gunmen killed a woman in her home in eastern Mosul, police said.

A woman in her home killed by an American?

No.

So who killed all of these Iraqi citizens?

Arabs killed them, either as suicide bombers or gunmen, Arabs from the same groups that have been killing Iraqis in the thousands for over four years now.

Not one of these Iraqis in the Reuters report was killed by American forces. Only in the Arab Parallel Universe can Arabs kill each other and then blame the Americans for the deaths.

Only the Arab Parallel Universe could create a hypocritical fool like al-Zaidi.

*

For those of you who aren't aware of how the APU works, you might want to check out Sandmonkey's 7 Rules of the A.P.U.:

So, in summary and conclusion, the 7 political rules of the APU are:

1) Arabs never make mistakes, and they rarely lose wars.
2) The Zionists and the Americans are always to blame for everything that is wrong in the APU.
3) If there is any credit at all that can be contributed to Arabs in any way, they will take it.
4) Good leadership is inversely related to how US-friendly a leader is!
5) Any media that is not the official state-owned media is filled with Zionist, Jewish, American, Christian, imperialist, anti-arab influences and they LIE ALL THE TIME!
6) There is really no need for elections in the APU, because Presidents and rulers are presidents and rulers for life.
7) The only viable alternative candidate to the current leader or president is this current leader or president’s son.

Hope that helped explain some of the confusing discrepancies that you may encounter from having those 2 parallel universes existing in the same reality. Mind you, those are only the political rules. There are other rules concerning economics , social traditions and norms, but those will be covered in future posts.

This is the Sandmonkey, from the APU, signing off!

Update 12-17-2008, from RhusLancia

I can't "resist". I saw this image on Layla's post heralding the great shoe-toss Resistance Hero and thought "Oh my! Even their propaganda posters star a homicide bomber!!". So I dressed up the image a tad and offer it here.

Happy Anniversary, Iraq

2008-12-13T22:38:00.000-08:00

I asked him: 'Why are you living in that dirty little hole, you bastard? You are a rat. Your father is a rat.'"
In Arabic, Saddam told Samir to shut up. And when Saddam called him a traitor, an enraged Samir silenced his prisoner with a flurry of quick jabs to the face.
"I punched Saddam in the mouth."

Nice work, Samir.

Five years ago, one undeniably good thing happened in Iraq. Thanks to HotAir for reminding me, and for pulling two great South Park clips on the moment: this one and this one:

Cheers!

Fay Comes Out Fighting On The Sad State Of Women's Rights In Iraq

2008-12-08T22:14:00.000-08:00

Muslim woman in Russia, where women's rights are protected and there
is no Sharia Law... Cr: Bride.RU.

Fayrouz Hancock, apparently resurrected from her Obama-induced happy coma, fires back on all cylinders and hits it out of the ballpark with an aggressive, acerbic post that chronicles the downward spiral of women's rights in Iraq:

After the removal of Saddam in 2003 and the installation of a bunch of religious fundamentalists as the face of the Iraqi government, Iraqi women started to lose their rights at the speed of light. Nothing has prepared the liberal Iraqi women for the bleak future enforced by a constitution that doesn't separate the state from religion.

Fay's argument is strongly reinforced by a fine article by Sudarsan Raghavan in the Washington Post entitled: Iraqi Women, Fighting for a Voice: Activists Confront Dual Powers of Religion, Tribalism, where she correctly notes:

In their quest for stability in Iraq, U.S. officials have empowered tribal and religious leaders, Sunni and Shiite, who reject the secularism that Saddam Hussein once largely maintained. These leaders have imposed strict interpretations of Islam and enforced tribal codes that female activists say limit their freedom and encourage violence against them.

"Women are being strangled by religion and tribalism," said Muna Saud, a 52-year-old activist in Basra.

Bravo bravo, I say to Fay and Sudarsan for finally speaking out in a forceful manner on the subject. I myself have commented several times in the blogosphere -- including LGF, which resulted in many Lizardoids having a hissy fit with me -- that women's rights are worse off now in Iraq than they were under Saddam Hussein.

Addendum: Women's rights indeed suffered under Saddam too, especially during the later years of his reign when he adopted a more Islamic persona, but they became brutally bad in the post-Saddam era.

But try telling that to the Right Wing Blogosphere -- with notable exceptions such as Diane West, Jihad Watch, and Debbie Schlussel -- and their commentators such as the "Welcome To Fantasy Island" cadre aka the Iraq The Model comments section, where rarely is heard a discouraging word or apparently very few words for that matter on the plight of Iraq's women.

For shame Louise The Librarian, BG, Valerie and the rest of your stinking hypocritical ilk with your endorsement of the present fundamentalist Iraqi government and their desecration of Iraq's women. Have you no shame? Apparently, you lack that facility.

The ITM groupies are too absorbed in posting newspaper articles to recognize, as Muhannad al-Zainy aptly (there's a first time for everything in life) noted, "There are more fundamentalists in the Iraqi govt today than in the last 100 years. "

Absolutely right, Iraqi Mojo, you receive, as Telly Savalas once said as Kojak, "a lollipop" for your ephemeral brilliance. You hit the nail right on the head, and Muhannad has a hard head, so it did no damage.

The Nancy Boy Fundamentalists of the Shia Theocratic Regime do indeed rule Iraq with a vengeance now and you can toss the rights of women there, down in to the big giant flaming trashcan of Sharia Law hell.

Or as Fay says, This is the liberation Iraqi women were given by the Bush administration. This is the legacy he's leaving behind: This administration turned secular Iraq into another fundamentalist Iran of the 1980s.

Yeah, really what can you say...

Iraqi Cabinet: Three More Years Sound Good

2008-11-16T07:46:00.000-08:00

The Iraqi Cabinet voted today in favor of a security agreement that will keep US forces in Iraq until the end of 2011. It looks like they're not waiting to negotiate with Obama, right?

Key points: 1) US forces out of Iraqi towns and cities by the summer of 2009, just a few months away, really, 2) US forces out of the country by the end of 2011, a definite withdrawal date, and 3) US forces have immunity from prosecution except for felonies committed while off their bases. It looks like both sides compromised on the agreement.

*

Meanwhile Shaggy, down on the farm south of Baghdad, reports on the first harvest that he has overseen. And no, that is NOT a photo of Shaggy.

UPDATE: Shaggy has just posted a new entry in which he tells us a little more about harvesting on the farm, what it's like to wear a dishdasha, and what happened to the engagement that his father had tried to set up for him.

*

On the comments pages over at Abbas's (Iraq is Catch-22: I Give Up), I've been following the exchanges between Touta, a young Iraqi woman, and Abbas, both of whom are wrestling with pessimism about the future of Iraq. She had mentioned that in the villages women in Iraq usually did not wear jeans. In Baghdad, however, it was different:

Of course I'm allowed to wear jeans in Baghdad, but the problem is baghdad is baghdad. Think about the rest of the country. Most adher to strict etiquette rules concerning youth/teenagers. And especially in the villages,where most may be uneducated, due to security problems, or simply lack of seeing education as important as marriage or money, even wearing baggy trousers is a big faux pas for girls.

And clever move side tracking there...hey iraq is hanging on a political balance, but what i'm wearing is just as important. So what are you wearing? *wink*. :) Joke, what I'm trying to say is that Iraqis are polite to others-no one threatens me because of what I wear, but at the same time, the growing trend of wearing 'terrain coloured curtains' has increased. Unfortunatly in iraq, women have taken a back seat. They worry constantly over their family, and take little part in politics, or when they do, don't think for themselves.

And yes, I have bought a 'curtain' but its bright green and blue, not terrain coloured. :) And it will be worn in only diyala. Teenagers rebel by drugs and having babies-I'm rebelling by wearing colour. Oh, and another reason why girls dress conservatively out of choice? Men here are 'starved' is all i can say to describe it. They will whistle, jeer, stare at anything as long as its a female. Again, this is a direct consequence of the brain drain that Iraq is suffering.As well as the fact that Iraqis have all suddenly found religion overnight. But in my opinion, its not religion that is the problem. its the Iraqis' frame of mind. I've noticed that we are so easily influenced as a nation. We will be secular one minute, talking about how religion is just a personal belief that helps us feel our life is not meaningless, and the next minute, we will be printing propaganda leaflets, and giving talks about how our sect is the right one.

I suppose all I can hope for, is that our generation puts up with the education system, and learn to think for ourselves, and so far, the future generation is looking promising. I think that it has dawned to all Iraqi youth that this crap is not worth putting up with.

RhusLancia has informed me that Touta has a blog, Fog al Nakhal, which you can now find on our blogroll to the right.

*

It's Time For The Americans To Withdraw From Iraq And Stop Being Played By The Shia Theocratic Regime

2008-11-13T03:51:00.000-08:00

PrisOnEd!!!

How can you tell when Abu Hussein aka Barack Obama is lying?

His lips are moving.

Ahhhh, the audacity of the dopes that voted for him...

Be that as it may, the one area where I agree with him, is the eminent withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

Make it so, the sooner, the better.

It should be obvious to anyone with half-a-brain, which excludes most of the American electorate, that their fellow Americans in Iraq have been "Played" (manipulated) by the Shia Theocratic Regime, and it needs to stop.

Truth be told, the Iraqi Shia have manipulated the Americans for years, as Hugh Fitzgerald tells us:

The Americans got into Iraq in large part, though not completely, because of the false information supplied to them by Shi'a "informants" about weapons of mass destruction, and furthermore because of the ridiculous assertions made to the Americans about how wonderfully, permanently grateful "the Iraqis" would be, with demonstrations following the liberation of Baghdad that "would make the liberation of Kabul seem like a funeral procession." Oh, great things were believed by Paul Wolfowitz (the war might cost "as much" as $40 billion), by Rumsfeld, Feith, Cheney, Bush, Rice, Bernard Lewis, tutti quanti. They knew. Ahmad Chalabi and Kanan Makiya and Shaha Riza and so many others of that ilk, wonderful people, people on Western wavelength, told them so.

And the machinations, the playing of the Americans by the Shia, continue to this day. As Hugh laments:

Americans do everything of consequence in Iraq for the good: they supply tens of billions of dollars in aid, they patrol the borders and interior waterways and the Persian Gulf port, they maintain the 8,500 (!) Humvees that have apparently been turned over to the government of Iraq, they insure air-traffic control and air safety throughout the country, including the safety of the oilfields and those now driling for oil, they train and retrain Iraqi soldiers and police...

Meanwhile, the Shia Theocratic Regime (with some assistance from Iraq's Sunni Supremacists) hoard Iraq's oil wealth and seek the luxuries of the West:

...the government of Iraq has been steadily refusing to do a thing, except to carefully pile up a surplus of nearly $100 billion dollars, and some individual Iraqis have managed to decamp, for places like Paris, where they now live on tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars (not the total, but what individual Iraqis have managed to get) , all of it money supplied by long-suffering American taxpayers of modest means.

Played... Big time.

This duplicity by the Shia was apparent to Fitzgerald early on. He stated in a 2006 Jihad Watch posting about the manipulations by the Iraqi Shia:

The most important is to have the American soldiers do as much of the fighting and dying and getting wounded as possible on behalf of the "government of Iraq" -- i.e. the Shi'a who now control the "government of Iraq." The second is to make sure that as much money as possible is inveigled out of those Americans -- and how many Iraqis are now living high, including those who escaped abroad, with loot from the generous and freespending Infidels, winning hearts, winning minds, spending like there was no tomorrow. The more time the Americans spend there, the more money they are likely to hand out.

And Lordy, they handed out a plethora of the American taxpayer's lucre. You would almost have thought they were bailing out Iraq's banks.

And yet, there are some, like Ayan Hirsi Ali -- whom I have a great deal of respect for, but she is wrong in this instance -- who argue that the US should remain in Iraq:

"The original impetus of Obama's campaign was his pledge to withdraw from Iraq in 16 months. There is little doubt that if Obama were to implement this pledge, jihadis in Iraq and across the world, who see history in the millennial terms of a long fight against the crusaders, would feel victorious ..."

However, as a commentator to Jihad Watch aptly notes:

Of course she is right, the jihadist will claim victory, but they claim victory when a hurricane hits the U.S., they claim victory when our stock market falls, they claim victory when a president gets elected. My god, if we base our strategy off what the enemy might say, or what they might not say….we will be in real trouble.

And al Qaeda isn't taking over in Iraq, when the US departs, be that today, tomorrow, or five years in the future. Those who babble on about such a possibility are spouting nonsense. As Hugh lucidly points out:

Will the Shi'a, who outnumber the Sunni Arabs by more than 3 to 1, suddenly cease to outnumber them? Will the weaponry they have acquired, from Saddam Hussein's armories, from the Americans, and from the Iranians, suddenly cease to exist? Will the training they have received as "Iraqi" soldiers and "Iraqi" police over the past few years simply be forgotten? Will they not know how to defend themselves, or to go on the offensive?

So, it's time to leave, as promptly as possible.

Chalk Iraq up as one of the biggest foreign policy disasters in American History and learn from the mistakes made there.

One of the major ones being, the non-separation of Mosque and State, by allowing Sharia Law to be incorporated into the Constitution. As Robert Spencer dolefully tells us:

The Iraqi Constitution already stipulates that no law can be made that contradicts Sharia -- a stipulation that Donald Rumsfeld long ago declared would not go into the document.

In any case, this ensures that both before and after 2011, the status of women and religious minorities will continue to erode, and whether the Sunnis or the Shia ultimately win out in Iraq, or come to some kind of accord (however improbable that may be in the long term), the country will increasingly become a Sharia state.

From Sunni Supremacism to Shia Theocracy for less than Three Trillion dollars.

What a bargain.

One, the Bush administration made with the Devil.

Arab Response to Obama's Election

2008-11-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, November 5, the day after the election, Sandmonkey offered his devoted readers a few post-election impressions ("Where Do We Go from Here?"). The morning after the Hopenchange Delirium, he first checked out what the MSM was up to:

CNN is still a cornucopia of holograms and colors, with them still stressing over the number of senate and house seats whose ballots haven't been counted yet, and getting the right amount of popular votes for each candidate, because while it was important to let McCain know that he lost, it's even more important to twist the knife, because, otherwise, where is the fun in that?

Since then, I've noticed the MSM has continued to kick Palin, even now that she's back in Alaska. And then she had the temerity to actually COMPLAIN about getting waterboarded by the media for a month straight. On the reporters' faces, the glee with which they discussed the alleged conflict between Palin and McCain was clear for all to see. Speaking of Palin, Sandmonkey *HEARTS* Palin, for both the obvious reasons and the not so obvious reasons:

As for Palin, my dear lovely Palin who I will miss so much (and yes, I still have a crush on her: A beauty queen who runs shit in her own state, likes having kids -i.e. screwing- and her hobbies include shooting wolves from Helicopters? I WANT THAT!!

Only our Dear Sandmonkey would get excited about a chick who is not only hot but likes to bag game while hanging out the door of a moving helicopter.

*

Caesar of Pentra, blogging from Baghdad, wishes that he were allowed to vote in the American election:

I'm not American, but if I had the right to vote then I would vote for Senator John McCain. The reason why I would vote for that aged senator is because of his attitude concerning the withdrawal of the US army troops out of Iraq. I totally agree with the republicans that the US troops shouldn't leave Iraq soon. There is a lot of work still need to be done on the ground. Iraq hasn't built strong military and Police establishments yet. Their army needs some more time to be strong, immune and firm against any possible threat.
Therefore, leaving Iraq alone is simply not the change we need, dear Obama.

*

Lina from Jordan, now attending graduate school in New York, spent the evening of the election exploring the city with friends. The next morning, she noted a humorous exchange that she had witnessed on the subway:

On the subway from Time Square to Harlem, a hard-core Obama supporter with Obama buttons all over her jacket was sharing her happiness with all those sitting around her. A young black woman exclaimed “I’m black and I’m proud.” A drunk young white woman said: “I’m black and I’m proud, and I’m from Chicago... beat that!”

So the button-covered woman responded “No darling - you’re white. But you’re alright.”

On Lina's comments page, Musa doesn't agree with the others that Obama's election was "historic," at the same time taking a few swipes at his opponents

The 2000 Florida recount was way more historic.

How about, for example, that by playing the first black president card, the US managed to go from "the snobbish corrupt hated tyrant superpower that is ruling the world with an iron fist..." to "the greatest democracy ever" overnight, LITERARY OVERNIGHT, in the biggest PR move ever!!

I just can't wait for the "historic moment" when the whole world is having a collective orgasm over America (the democratic melting pot) electing its first female president. Woohoo ... now that would be historic (some may think it is late when it happens in 2016...but hey better never than late)....just imagine if she is one-eighth red Indian (err i mean native-American)...that would definitely prove that America has changed and that Tiger Woods is the one thing that brings us all together .

To be honest, I agree with Musa. America was not the country of racist cowboys before Obama's election, just as we are not beautiful angels now with Obama's ascension. Both of these views are extreme and reductive.

*

Over at Eye Raki's, a commenter named Cihad, responding to Eye Raki giving thanks that Bush had removed Saddam before Obama was elected president ("Bush, Saddam & Obama"), says, "Now you are the only one in the world I know that believes that Bush won the war in Iraq." Eye Raki replies:

Cihad, Bush toppled Saddam, a new constitution was written, that constitution was ratified, a new government was democratically elected by the Iraqi people, the Iraqis can now speak and think for themselves, and the list can go on.

If all that was a failure, then I pray Obama continues to 'fail' in Iraq.

I am not saying there were no sacrifices along the way, but something happened on 9/4/2003 that sent shivers down the spine of every leader in the region. Saddam, whose name you could barely whisper, was relegated to the trash bin of history.

If Bush had listened "to the people" Saddam would still have been untouchable.

No Cihad I cannot deny that the vast majority of the Iraqi people want the US troops out of Iraq, I myself want them out of Iraq. No one with any 'gheera' wants armed foreigners on their soil for the sake of it, but the million dollar question is when, and under what circumstances, should they leave?

More to follow.

*

Dear Comrades, The Bourgeois Iraqi Blogger NIW Renders Her Opinion On The Election Of The Glorious One, Chairman Barack Obama

2008-11-06T05:04:00.000-08:00

Soon, NIW and her Husband will be

entering the No. 1 Re-Education Camp at

Guantanamo...

Greetings Comrades,

Today is the Second Day of The One in the U.S.S.A.

Remember Comrades in the United Socialist States of America,
everyone is Equal.

But some are More Equal than others in the Glorious Motherland.

Someone very unequal is Bourgeois Iraqi Blogger Neurotic Iraqi Wife, who proclaims the greatness of The One, brighter than a thousand suns and more sweet smelling than the bloom of
a million desert roses:

OBAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!woooohooooo. Wow!!! I just watched the speech!!!OMG. America, History has just been made! I dunno what to say really, Im over the moon. Its as if he is MY president. As an Iraqi I have my hopes on this man.

Change, change, change. Change is on its way. Change to the vicious Bush administration. The Bush administration that lied, tricked, conned the world, and most of all conned the Iraqis.

Today is a different day. A brighter day. A brighter day for everyone who wanted and believed in change. For me, this is not just about history, this is about someone who was able to bring down the very people that broke my country. It’s a great punch to the very people that destroyed the individual Iraqi. And that to me is an enough victory.

Alas, there is no escape for either you or your husband, NIW for the crimes you committed against the oppressed proletariat masses of Iraq.

How happy will she be, when she later learns, that as a Bourgeois oppressor of the Iraqi people and a collaborator with the criminal and hegemonic Bush administration, she will have to provide reparations to the oppressed Iraqi people for the $300,000 - $500,000 dollars she and her husband exploited off of them. And then undergo re-education therapy at the newly re-opened Number 1 Camp of Re-education for the Criminal Members of the Bush Administration and their Collaborators at Guantanamo.

She will not be very happy at all, comrades. Not at all. And do not think, NIW, discrediting the criminal oppressive hegemonic Bush Administration now will save you. No one believes your lies, after you and your husband cashed three years of paychecks, borne on the backs of the broken and oppressed Iraqi proletariat. You Bourgeois Dog with an Imelda Marcos shoe complex, we are watching you...

Who would you vote for?
	Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
	Nouri Kamil Mohammed Hassan al-Maliki of the Islamic Dawa Party

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