Flying Over the Iraqi Blogodrome

I'm on holiday - posting from a smoky Internet Café in Turkey - so only time for a small sliver of the Iraqi blogs this week. There are two that really stood out and make essential reading. Both are from the same kind of person, secular, middle-class, Westernized, Iraqi. Both have experienced the horrors of war firsthand. Yet each comes to conclusions that are worlds apart and each describe their feelings more eloquently than any other writer I have read since the start of the Lebanon crisis. You want to know why blogs are going to push the established media out? Read these and you will see.

First, came Hala's post of her reaction to the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon. Hala recently returned from Beirut where she was one of the last tourists to enter in peacetime. She gives a daily account of life through the bombardment and gives one of the most eloquent reactions against the Israeli's I have seen anywhere:

I’ve never ever felt so humiliated in my life as I did seeing Israeli jets flying freely in the skies of Beirut... I loathed our weakness, I loathed being born as an Arab, I loathed living in London I hated myself so much I couldn’t even look in the mirror or watch my shadow as I walk. I felt so small and envied a tiny ant struggling to find its way through the sand.

I hate peace and I don’t believe in it anymore, it is so clear now that the more we bow and compromise the more we got stepped at and smashed. If there would be peace one day it has to be on our own terms.

Israel is talking about changing the culture of hate; what a joke, those cowards have the cheek to speak about hate. Israel has the right to defend itself; and talking about us trying to throw them in the sea, so meanwhile they are throwing us in hell.

The US has only one goal, that is to turn the area to a desert and drain it freely; armless, helpless, pacified and who dares to say a word.

It is very hard for me to say that our only salvation is to ally with Iran, the only strong country left, enough is enough we are living in an era where you have to be feared not respected.

And a small message to all the hypocrates; you may kill and slaughter trying to establish a so called "The New Middle East"; rememmber you are fighting an ideology not a group of people.

Nasrallah is not a terrorist; he is probably the last dignified man in the area. Right now he is the only man I can take my hat off for.

Then came Mohammed's post in Iraq the Model:

I feel I must talk about the Arab media and its deception campaign and that's because wars in both Lebanon and Iraq are largely the same. In both cases the media functions not only as a means to deliver news but had long turned into an effective weapon that is not the least interested in objectivity or factuality. ...

Perhaps the peak in the destruction curve inflicted by the Arab media on the Arab mind was in the exploitation of the Qana tragedy, ... I was horrified by the ugly scenes of extracting the dead children's corpses from beneath the rubble. That scene was a disgusting act of begging for sympathy and an attempt to sell the dead childhood to serve an evil cause...

This is utter absurdity that challenges reason and diverts the view from the real criminal, the children-murdering butcher Nesrallah. Don't ever think those criminals were hurt by that scene … if they really care about the children and the innocent we would've seen similar angry reaction and uproar to what they show now when more than a hundred of children were massacred in two terror crimes in Baghdad in 2004 in Hay al-Amil and 2005 in New Baghdad. ...

The murderer in those crimes was not a pilot unsure of what was inside a building and it wasn't midnight either, no, the criminal went purposefully straight into a crowd of children celebrating a new project in their neighborhood or receiving candies and gifts.

... the murderer was Arab and Muslim and holding him responsible would've blown away the ideology of "resistance"

Although these posts are worlds apart, there is a common thread. A deep hatred of the hypocrisy of media and governments. and a recognition that the days of peaceful negotiation are over.

A sense of perspective

Neurotic Wife cuts through all the emotional language and gets to the point:

Now lets get into the nitty gritty...People have to understand that theres a fine line between what people define terrorism and what people see as self defense...The daily killing of Iraqis is a terrorism act...The Qana massacre is a terrorism act... 911 was a terrorism act...Oklahoma bombing was a terrorism act...Any killing of any kind that involves innocent people going victims IS A TERRORISM ACT... Had the scene been reversed and the shelter was in Israel, I probably would have reacted the same way but maybe with less ferver...Most of the victims in Lebanon that were killed were innocent people and not Hizbollah militia...

Do I support Hizbollah??? No I dont support Hizbollah...Do I support the Israeli action??? No...Do I support Al Sadr??? No No No...And when I say I dont support these people, I mean I do not support their policies...I do not judge people by their faith, nor do I judge people by their nationality...But Im sorry to say that there are many ignorant people in this world, that are extremely judgemental and I will also say very shallow...Take Oklahoma bombing for instance...The minute it took place all fingers pointed to the Middle East...Doesnt that tell you something???

And Finally...

There has been the biggest Iraq blogger meeting ever in Amman, Jordan last week. So what do you think they did? Plot the overthrow of the mainstream media? develop a solution for world peace? devise a new political system?

Morbid Smile writes: "There were Hala_S, Anarki, The Kid, Zeyad, Attawie and me. My sister was around but she was exploring the place with Mom. It was fun. We talked about blogs, Baghdad and other stuff, and sure a few political topics!"

What??? That was it??? Oh no, there was one more thing...

Attawie and I went to movies and watched Pirates of the Caribbean II. Being a big fan of Johnny Depp, I'd say that the movie was so much fun and Jack Sparo was hilarious! After the movie we went out to the mall and walked around for hours and took many photos

Ho hum.