Live from Iraq, it's the real story

[Demobrat]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/09/03/DD62001.DTL

Jon Carroll Wednesday, September 3, 2003

Snip

Some of the best blogs are coming out of Iraq. They are designed for a foreign readership -- they're in English, for one thing -- and they tell a very different story from anything our media is presenting. Here's the difference: Young Iraqi bloggers know what they're talking about. They have not just arrived in country with a briefing book, a Kevlar vest and a Lonely Planet guide.

My current favorite is www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com. It is written by a woman, a resident of Baghdad not otherwise identified, and it's funny and sad and constantly informative. I offer as an example one tale from last week. It's one of those "you thought this was going on but you had no data" deals.

snip

The Iraqi company that employees Riverbend's cousin was asked to bid on rebuilding the New Diyala bridge south and west of Baghdad.
"They did the necessary tests and analyses (mumblings about soil composition and water depth, expansion joints and girders) and came up with a number they tentatively put forward -- $300,000. This included new plans and designs, raw materials (quite cheap in Iraq), labor, contractors, travel expenses, etc.

snip

"A week later, the New Diyala Bridge contract was given to an American company. This particular company estimated the cost of rebuilding the bridge would be around -- brace yourselves -- $50,000,000!!"

[kayell]

1. The BFEE has amazing powers of extracting profit

from the wallets of the taxpayers of this country and giving it to their good buddies at the top. The most amazing thing though is that they have so many convinced that they are actually trying to cut taxes and return the govt. to fiscal responsibility. :puke:

[Melsky]

2. Thanks, this is really cool

It's a very well written blog. It's good to be able to look at Iraq through the eyes of an actual Iraqi, after hearing all the crap propaganda from the US government/media about how they are so happy to have us there, and there's only a few Saddam supporters who are giving those happy American worshipping Iraqis a bad name. Even my otherwise inteligent father was telling me some statistic about 4 out of 5 Iraqis being happy that they are being occupied by the US. Right........ people invade my country, bomb and kill people, crush the infrastructure, and open up the country to fundamentalist Muslim terrorists, and I'm kissing their feet.

[glarius]

3. I'm sitting here crying reading the terrible "memories" of the person who

wrote this blog....How sad....And still CNN can't say anything stronger against the situation in Iraq than "they're glad Saddam is gone but they would like more security" which was just quoted by their Baghdad Bureau Chief who was in the CNN studio today.....Now the U.S.A is counting on the countries they vilified before the war to come to the rescue.....It's all so insane!!

[wabeewoman]

4. Another good one is:

is http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/


this one is also interesting. Its written here but the guy is a middle eastern scholar. http://www.juancole.com/
snip
I don't usually cover what is in the major US newspapers because those are easily googled. But it is worth noting that reports out Tuesday indicate that the US simply cannot maintain its current troop level of 140,000 in Iraq beyond next spring, and that it would take 5 years and billions to raise two new divisions of the US military. Likewise the LA Times brought into sharp question the idea that very much of the violence in Iraq is being committed by outsiders, saying most is homegrown. I think it appeals to the US to blame al-Qaeda for it because it is embarrassing to admit that millions of Iraqis hate the US presence, which they see as an occupation, and that thousands of them are willing to take direct action against it. I think the Bush team is just going to have to bite the bullet and bring in the United Nations. This would mean that the French and Russians would get some of the oil business that Cheney wanted to throw to Halliburton, but, well, you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs. Even with economic inducements, which the Bush administration has been chintzy about offering, it will be hard to convince other governments that they ought to send their young men into what looks increasingly like a quagmire.