The Real Iraq

When Americans first bombed and then invaded Iraq, a blog from inside Iraq began appearing, called Baghdad Burning, written by a blogger who called herself Riverbend. From the start it was eloquent and precise and authentic. It's since won all kinds of international praise.

There have been long stretches when "river" hasn't posted, long enough for people to become worried about her. But towards the end of the year she began a new series of posts. They are about the Iraq that Bush will be talking about in a few hours:

A day in the life of the average Iraqi has been reduced to identifying corpses, avoiding car bombs and attempting to keep track of which family members have been detained, which ones have been exiled and which ones have been abducted.

2006 has been, decidedly, the worst year yet. No- really. The magnitude of this war and occupation is only now hitting the country full force. It's like having a big piece of hard, dry earth you are determined to break apart. You drive in the first stake in the form of an infrastructure damaged with missiles and the newest in arms technology, the first cracks begin to form. Several smaller stakes come in the form of politicians like Chalabi, Al Hakim, Talbani, Pachachi, Allawi and Maliki. The cracks slowly begin to multiply and stretch across the once solid piece of earth, reaching out towards its edges like so many skeletal hands. And you apply pressure. You surround it from all sides and push and pull. Slowly, but surely, it begins coming apart- a chip here, a chunk there.

This last year especially has been a turning point. Nearly every Iraqi has lost so much. So much. There's no way to describe the loss we've experienced with this war and occupation. There are no words to relay the feelings that come with the knowledge that daily almost 40 corpses are found in different states of decay and mutilation. There is no compensation for the dense, black cloud of fear that hangs over the head of every Iraqi. Fear of things so out of ones hands, it borders on the ridiculous- like whether your name is 'too Sunni' or 'too Shia'. Fear of the larger things- like the Americans in the tank, the police patrolling your area in black bandanas and green banners, and the Iraqi soldiers wearing black masks at the checkpoint.

About American presence, she writes that she can hardly remember or even believe the time when she agonized over the deaths of American soldiers. Had I not chronicled those feelings of agitation in this very blog, I wouldn't believe them now. Today, they simply represent numbers. 3000 Americans dead over nearly four years? Really? That's the number of dead Iraqis in less than a month. The Americans had families? Too bad. So do we. So do the corpses in the streets and the ones waiting for identification in the morgue.
Is the American soldier that died today in Anbar more important than a cousin I have who was shot last month on the night of his engagement to a woman he's wanted to marry for the last six years? I don't think so.

About the actual number of dead in Iraq, she found the Lancet study estimate of 600,000 to be a credible figure.

About the current US backed government, she has nothing but scorn. They censor the press, and they turned Saddam into a martyr. She is also a persistent voice exposing how our media gets it wrong, as in this case. Saddam was executed during the holy time of Eid: Eid is a time of peace, of putting aside quarrels and anger- at least for the duration of Eid. It was a sacrilege, a religous scandal, compounded by Saddam's own last words (which she reports contrary to most American media summaries, though working from the very same tape) as affirmation of Muslim faith.

If you're tired of the numbers and the dueling experts, the pompous anchors and stream of unconsciousness pundits, look to the latest posts from Baghdad Burning for a little reality of life in Iraq as it is, and hear the voice of a real person in the midst of it.