Blog Roundup: In the Iraqi Civil War the Optimists Strike Back

From what I have seen the Western media has shown too much of a morbid facination with civil war. They are to fast to declare a new war while at the same time frightened by the consequences. The result is that you get a false picture of what is going on. This duality is understandable. The political editor will say "tone it down - a civil war will threaten our interests" while the managing editor will shout "play it up for all its worth - this sells newspapers." So, for the sake of balance I dedicated my Global Voices Online column to reports from those who are looking for lights at the end of the tunnel. Here is the post in full.

If you want to understand what is really going on read this:

Ali of Free Iraqi gives an excellent analysis of the mentaility of the Iraqi Sunni and Shia.

He concludes by saying:

I think we should all look at ourselves first and for me I think the major problem is that Saddam’s mentality is still running this country through people like Sadr, Al-Hakeem, Adnan Al-Dulaimi and Barzani. It’s those people who keep inflaming those already existing divisions for their own benifit, as they represnt nothing but ethnic and sectarian hatred and they feed this fear and hatred among their people so that they vote for them. We Iraqis need to see that and then Americans need to see that too. The solution is certainly not even visible now but I think it helps a lot to identify the problem first.

The optimists strike back:

Forget civil war we have all out blogger battles in Iraq. The Konfused Kid is not confused anymore , he starts with a warning: “WARNING : I am pissed off, so I may say things I do not mean.” and then lays into Zeyad and AnaRki13:

F**k you Zeyad, F**k you Anarki13, f**k you my sectarain grandmother, f**k anyone who’s done anything to wallow in the misery of Iraq and incite more hatred, fear and death amongst the masses, either intentionally or not. Those blogger friends who have taken to recluse in digging up any horrible stories and passing them off to anyone who can hear, glorifiying any negative news they can find, please ignore these sorry fools

Ouch. But why?

Zeyad, a friend of mine and arguably the best Iraqi blogger out there, has been continously adding oil to the pan by translating to the world at large gloomy news from a decidedly miserable website …all the news Zeyad’s been passing are all about doom and gloom, stop glorifiying the death…

As for 13, who immediately called it a Civil War and put his head in the sand, well, dude, please, I know u hate Iraq and everything but can’t u at least have a little faith in yourself?

But he has something positive to say:

I know Iraq will pass through this, and it will actually be a good thing in retrospect because people have got a taste of what it’s like of pitting brother against brother and it will bring the people together…Iraq is filled with nice intellctual guys, yeah I’ve come out and dared to say it. These people will not engage in this folly…

I love my country. Shit, I never knew I cared so much.

Iraq Pundit takes the Western media to task:

Why do these reporters want to see a civil war so badly in Iraq? It looks to me that they hate Bush so much that they will stop at nothing to prove that he’s wrong about Iraq and they are right. The reporters have sunk so low as to take this cheap angle of insisting that an all out civil war has been underway for three years. When will they wake up and realize that this is not a White House scandal. This is about Iraq and its people.

24 Steps To Liberty is amazed by a picture he posts from his TV:

Iraqi clergymen, Shiites and Sunnis, have met in a mosque in Baghdad and decided to contribute to ending the crisis… What was amazing about it is the unity they showed on TV. In the picture, Kubaisi [spokesman of the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars] is shown leading the prayers and all the clergies behind him are Shiites from Sadr trend. This is the first time I see this. I’ve never seen a Sunni clergyman leading Shiite prayers…. This is a huge encouragement to Iraqis and a huge defeat also for those who predicted a wide civil war in Iraq.

Ali is not scared by the prospect of civil war:

this mounting rage and distrust among both Sunnis and She’at may not be resolved by Sistanis misplaced calls for tolerance or the Sunni scholars faked offers for peace and it may be needed that things are taken to the extreme to show Sunnis that they’re not the strongest anymore and to show She’at that being a majority does not mean you can whip out 5 or 6 million Sunnis from Iraq. Both parties would most likely learn after that to live in real tolerance and acceptance of their differences.