The Real Bloggers of Baghdad

This week President Bush choose to emphasis his favorite Right-Wing Talking Point, frequently echoed by his bestest BFF's John McCain and Joe Lie-ber-man that things are going swimmingly with The Surges ™ by quoting the words of two bloggers from Baghdad.

"They have bloggers in Baghdad, just like we've got here."

And what have these two bloggers been saying, according to President ("I use The Google but not the E-mail") Bush?

"Displaced families are returning home, marketplaces are seeing more activity, stores that were long shuttered are now reopening. We feel safer about moving in the city now. Our people want to see this effort succeed."

Nevermind the fact that these quotes didn't just come from a pair of random blogs but rather a Wall Street Journal Op-ed based on posts that were already several weeks old at the time.

Nevermind the fact that these two random bloggers happen to be big fat Bushies who have actually visited the White House and the President. From Will Bunch on Attytood

It's true that the authors blog from Baghdad: Their names are Mohammed and Omar Fadhil, and their site is called Iraq the Model. The Fadhils are not really your typical bloggers, though. For one thing, they have actually met with Bush in the Oval Office, in 2004. I happen to know quite a few bloggers -- none of the ones I know have met with the president.

Nevermind the fact that in recent days we have seen reports from Iraq such as these:

100+ dead in Baghdad suicide bombings.

“Multiple suicide bombers struck in predominantly Shiite markets in Baghdad and in a town north of the capital, killing at least 104 people and wounding scores on Thursday - the day that new U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker took office.” March 29,2007

...Or this which indicates that things are so bad, it's not even safe in the "Green Zone" anymore.

Green zone attack kills 2 Americans.

“Two Americans, a contractor and a soldier, were killed in a rocket attack on the heavily guarded Green Zone on Tuesday, according to statements from the U.S. Embassy and the military. Five other people were wounded, one contractor who was seriously hurt and three with slight wounds. A second soldier also was wounded in the attack, but the military did not give a condition.” March 27, 2007

Despite all this the President and his incredibly shrinking pool of supporters for this war continue to argue that we should keep clapping for the Tinkerbell Troops who will just simply collapse to dust without our endless, unflinching, boundless, judgement-less, unconditional love and enthusiam as well as unrestricted truckloads of cold hard CA$H. (But of course, only limited funds for body armor, proper helmet linings, uparmored humvees, improved healthcare or anything ridiculous gouche like that. Pfft!)

You see, our problem is we just don't hear enough "Good News" from the Illegal Occupation of Iraq - er - War on Terror™ - so the President did his civic duty and decided to "Catapult the Propaganda" and bring us some in order to counteract the Vast Left-Wing Media Conspiracy © that's been deliberately lying to all of us this entire time just because they're terminally afflicted with BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome)!

There, wasn't that helpful?

Well it seems that at least one Bloggerista, the aforementioned Will Bunch, decided to do some random surfing through the Blogs of Baghdad just to take the temperature of the place.

Here's what he found on five randomly choosen blogs accessable through a new site called IraqSlogger and The Google.

Exhibit A. From Baghdad Burning.

It takes a lot to get the energy and resolution to blog lately. I guess it’s mainly because just thinking about the state of Iraq leaves me drained and depressed.

Continued.

Let me clear it up for any moron with lingering doubts: It’s worse. It’s over. You lost. You lost the day your tanks rolled into Baghdad to the cheers of your imported, American-trained monkeys. You lost every single family whose home your soldiers violated. You lost every sane, red-blooded Iraqi when the Abu Ghraib pictures came out and verified your atrocities behind prison walls as well as the ones we see in our streets. You lost when you brought murderers, looters, gangsters and militia heads to power and hailed them as Iraq’s first democratic government. You lost when a gruesome execution was dubbed your biggest accomplishment. You lost the respect and reputation you once had. You lost more than 3000 troops. That is what you lost America. I hope the oil, at least, made it worthwhile.

Exhibit B. Treasure of Baghdad

My aunt’s words are still in mind since that day. She is right. Iraq is destroyed. People are displaced. No more schools are open. No more jobs offered. Markets are no longer welcoming customers. Barbers are killed. There is no longer water and electricity. There is no safety. People sleep with guns next to their pillows. Is that what people were dreaming of?

Exhibit C. Healing Iraq.

Hometown Baghdad is a new website that features short, compelling video documentaries of the lives of several Iraqi youth in Baghdad. Filmed completely by Iraqis, it follows the lives of Adel, Ausama and Saif, three college students, and their families, as they brave the streets of Baghdad, people who have nothing to do with the conflict going on in the country but who were sucked up in the madness nevertheless. They are the people behind the headlines and the numbers you so often see in Iraq coverage (50 Iraqis killed, 100 Iraqis wounded, 600 thousand Iraqis dead, 3 million Iraqis displaced, etc). It is classic citizen journalism from the front in Baghdad, despite Adel's slightly annoying Americanised accent. One of them is a despairing dentist!

Exhibit D. Baghdad Chronicles.

It was another turning point to our group when D was kidnapped from his house. Thankfully he was returned back safely because at that time, a year ago, kidnapped people were delivered safely after receiving the ransom money. Nowadays they take the money and throw the body in Tigris. Yes in that Tigris which once was sparkling under our suspension bridge, the bridge which is taken away from us and is invaded now like everything else in our life by some weird people who have different language, different blood and different culture.

And finally Exhibit E. hnk's blog (Which is technically from Mosul, not Baghdad)

And BOOOOM that's what we heard, my mom jumped from her place and I was too busy watching my mom. my dad as usual did what he always does when we heard an explosion.

He went out of the house. At that time there was a shooting so I go after him and pleased him to come inside and when he came back he was followed by 3 women and a child. they were walking in the street and the explosion made them crazy so they ran into our house. They sat for a little while and then left after the shooting stopped.

the situation is always getting worse. one day ago, we heard about 2 big explosions each hour.
We didn't even fix the kitchen's window that broke last month. because every day we heard an explosion which is big enough to break the window over again.

Now I would never suggest that you should simply take these paltry five examples as being completely and totally representative of the current state of existence in Baghdad or greater Iraq. Why... that would be horribly irresponsible wouldn't it? No, I would rather suggest that you consider just how Wolf Blitzer and Keith Olberman managed to bribe and pay-off these ridiculous left-wing shills into supporting their pathological Bush Hating Sickness. I mean really, who leaves the kitchen window broken like that - it's just plain unsanitary.

And then once you've return to the Reality Based World after utterly failing at that rather daunting task of mental gymnastics, you just might possibly consider that things in Iraq right now could possibly be pretty much fracked up!

And also that it's all our Bush's doing.

Vyan