Today we pay one of our periodic visits to Iraqi blogs to see what people there are thinking about. Not surprisingly, they've got a lot on their minds. The handover of authority to the government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the violence of the continuing insurgency, of course. But also high school finals, how the national team is doing in the Asian soccer championships and disgust with how TV shows depict everyday life.
Yes, as Iraq attempts to emerge from the nightmare of the Saddam decades and the fallout of war, everyday concerns seem to be showing up more frequently in Iraqi blogs. This has got to be a good thing.
Let's start with sports for a change.
Even soccer is political
At Iraq the Model, the joint blog of three brothers, Omar writes:
"In a dramatic match, the National Iraqi football team achieved victory upon the team of Turkmenistan 3-2 in our 2nd match in the Asian championship. … Now the Iraqi team has a second chance to qualify to the quarter finals of this championship …Till now, there’s no gunfire to celebrate the win but I saw convoys of cars carrying flags and playing traditional Iraqi music in the streets soon after the match ended. Congratulations to the Iraqi team. They worked hard and they deserve the win."
Kurdo at Kurdo's World, however, had some problems with the TV announcers. Kurdo, as you might guess, is a Kurd, an Iraqi minority brutally abused by Saddam's regime (and also harshly suppressed in neighboring Turkey).
Tuning into the game that preceded the one Omar wrote about, Kurdo "was excited and all warmed up to watch …The first line the commentator said was 'We are broadcasting the match of our brothers "The Arab Iraqi" team.'
"I said hang on a minute I am not an Arab. I have the right to say that I am a Kurd. OK simple. I changed the channel … "
To no avail. After three similar experiences, "This time I got angry. I said to myself, 'If the new Iraq is for all, then it shouldn't be called Arabic Iraq.' This is because me and another 9 other million people are not Arabs. And we are the indigenous people of this country. …
"This is why, the majority of Kurds support independence. Iraq is and will be an Arabic country. There is no place for us there."
The ethnic divisions in Iraq are among the daunting problems that the new Iraqi government will have to try to sort out if it is to achieve stability.
Are the terrorists losing?
Iraqis remain concerned about insurgent bombings – many of them aimed at Iraqis, not coalition troops. But some bloggers think it's good news that the insurgents are being forced to employ these tactics because it shows their fundamental weakness. Here's Sam at Mesopotamian:
"Yesterday they struck again, one car bombing and two assassinations of Government officials. This is the only thing they can do. They had hoped that they could develop their fight to control areas and confront the Iraqis in open warfare. But they are being defeated and forced to fall back to earlier tactics, and with much difficulty. The ROUNDUP has started. To be sure, they will be able to deliver some more sabotage and terror but the price they are going to pay is going to go up and up. We have always thought that the Iraqis are better able to take care of internal security. You could see that so clearly in recent days. The police raids on crime dens were such a graphic illustration of the difference. The intelligent recognition by the policemen of who is criminal and who is innocent was so apparent. The people in the street, mostly vendors and shopkeepers, were happy even as bullets were flying all over the place. … "
Omar at Iraq the Model also gives the new government good marks for its initial efforts to improve security, and reports that "the new observation this time is that some of the confiscated weapons and ammunition are not from the ususal origins you can see in Iraq (automatic rifles other than the Ak47, bazookas other than the RPG7 and other devices) and these weapons don’t belong to the stuff left behind by the old army after the 9th of April 2003." They were smuggled in, he concludes.
Smuggled weapons might sound like a bad thing, but Omar thinks to the contrary it may indicate that the supply of leftover weapons from the Saddam regime may be drying up: "This is a good sign indeed because when getting weapons becomes more difficult and a lot more expensive than before we should expect a decline in the frequency of terrorist attacks in Iraq."
Military justice
Zeyad, a Sunni Muslim dentist who lives in Baghdad and writes at Healing Iraq is encouraged that U.S. military justice appears to be catching up with four soldiers who participated in an incident that led to the drowning death of an Iraqi man.
"According to this report, the 3 soldiers who forced Zaydun and his cousin Marwan into the Tigris at Sammara resulting in the drowning of Zaydun are now facing charges of manslaughter, assault, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy. A fourth soldier was charged with assault and making false official statements. A court hearing has been scheduled next Thursday, and further charges may be waiting the soldiers. …"
Zeyad has written much about this over the last six moths, and his persistent blogging – read by many Americans and other bloggers -- may have helped prod the investigation. "Thanks to everyone who sent letters to their officials and congressmen, thanks to the people and soldiers who wrote to me and to Zaydun's family expressing their support and encouragement, and thanks to the wonderful bloggers whose persistence and support made this possible," he writes.
The cynic
Not everyone, of course, is sanguine about the U.S. and its motives in Iraq. O at Iraqi Spirit recounts a conversation with a friend, A:
A: I’m sure you follow current events as much as I do
O: Yes
A: Haven’t you noticed how in every conversation that comes up, there are 3 words that are being used interchangeably regardless of the issue?
O: And what are they?
A: Freedom, Democracy, and Terror. For example the media ask a question about WMD’s and all you could hear is blah, blah, blah, freedom, blah, blah, blah, blah, democracy, blah, blah, blah, blah terrorism.
"Or another example for instance about AbuGhraib, the sound coming out of the politicians is blah, blah, blah, democracy, blah, blah, blah, lah, terrorism, blah, blah, blah, blah freedom."
He added that people are being brainwashed and cowed into over simplification of issues.
O: Surely all the words mentioned by you are important to us in the Middle East, and we can’t compromise on them. For example, Al-Qaeda is more of danger to us than they are to the west. While they are willing to compromise with the west (Spain as an example), the only compromise they will offer us is a total change in our way of life to adhere to their edicts, or our head gets chopped off.
A: That’s true, and I’m not disputing that we need those ideals in our societies, to have a better life to everyone.
But, I’m talking about western politicians over here; they mention those words on any occasion, while on the other hand they have allies such as the president of Uzbekistan, who boils political opponents, and conveniently forget to remind him of his human rights abuses, so why not have a universal standards applied to everyone instead of being selective about it?
O: Smiling and shaking my head knowing where this conversation going to lead, I reply:
“blah, blah, blah, democracy, blah, blah, blah, blah, terrorism, blah, blah, blah, blah freedom.”
TV is bad in Iraq, too
Ays (those are his/her initials; no bio information available) at Iraq at a glance is less than charmed by a new series called "Love and War."
" … this dramatic work supposed to show the everyday life of the Iraqis after the liberation since it’s the first dramatic work after the war, but I was shocked with the subjects and the way of dealing with such important change in Iraq, they concentrate on the bad events only and never mention anything related to many great changes in the life of Iraqis."
Ays figured out what was going on in a scene in which a man and woman who were engaged "stood in front of 'Saddam's tower,' a building in Al Yarmook neighborhood in Baghdad, with grieving musical background, then the actress looked at the tower with sad facial expressions and finally cried!
"Our neighbors, friends and we were so astonished and bewildered from this act! … Then my friend came to a conclusion of: they are Baathists! [Saddam supporters]"
Be quiet and study
Finally, this from high-school student Nabil at Nabil's blog.
"I am in my vacation but I am studying to be ready for the next year before college (12th grade) my life really become very sad because I don't have any days off except one day which is Thursday that day is my best day these days because I can go out with my friends and have fun, but the other days are very bad and full because somedays I have one lesson in the whole day and the lesson is about 2 hours and without electricity and somedays I have two lessons and the most day I hate is Wednsday because I have three lessons in that day and more than these lessons that there are exams and a very hard exams, the teachers said we have to give you a hard exams to insure that you become very good and you will do very good in the finals, and I am doing very good in those exams but I am tired of studying 8 hours per day or maybe less than that when I am bored, at all this is all for me and because of that I keep studying."
That whine sounds way too familiar, right down to the interminable run-on sentence.
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