Carnival of the Liberated
David J. Schuler
First, kidnapping strikes close to home for a blogger. Alaa of The Mesopotamian writes:
It has been some time that I have not talked to you. However, we have a family crisis at the moment since we have been struck by a kidnapping for ransom of one of my close relatives. You don't really know how it feels until it strikes you personally.
and
This is becoming a very common situation and it is particularly the Baghdadi middle class and the better people who are most cruelly hit. For every foreigner kidnapped you must count perhaps a thousand Iraqis, and this is no exaggeration. The good people have become easy pray to merciless gangs with very little protection from the IP or any other form of Law Enforcement agencies, who can hardly protect themselves, let alone providing security for others. These gangs are part and parcel of the so-called “resistance” and “insurgency”; in many cases they are one and the same.
Read the whole story here and here
Ali gives us an interesting analysis of the pattern of attacks in Iraq:
Where is Zargawi and why is he silent? Many people were asking this question and I was one of these people although I think I may have a different answer. I think all these people and I'm one of them were talking about suicide attacks that targeted Iraqis frankly without even an American presence near the places where these attacks took place.
Before the revolt of Sadr and his militia there was more suicide attacks in Iraq everyday than what takes place allover the world and from that time only two suicide and one of them targeted an Iraqi official not civilians. This simply cannot be a coincidence and that was our opinion from the first time Sadr revolted, and although I had other possibilities but one particular possibility seemed more logical than the rest.
But why would Sadr's revolt has such a decisive effect on suicide attacks? If Sadr revolt, suicide bombs stop, and when he stops suicide attacks resume! Before trying to explain my `theory', I think we might well review other possible reasons.
As the man says, read the whole thing.
Apparently, bootleg copies of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 are becoming pretty common place in Iraq. Riverbend has a pretty predictable reaction to it:
All in all, the film was… what is the right word for it? Great? Amazing? Fantastic? No. It made me furious, it made me sad and I cried more than I'd like to admit… but it was brilliant. The words he used to narrate were simple and to the point. I wish everyone could see the film. I know I'll be getting dozens of emails from enraged Americans telling me that so-and-so statement was exaggerated, etc. But it really doesn't matter to me. What matters is the underlying message of the film- things aren't better for Americans now than they were in 2001, and they certainly aren't better for Iraqis.
But part of being free is being free to disagree and that's certainly true of Omar's friend who writes:
Well the best part goes when he suspected that the war against Taliban was to build a pipeline through Afghanistan!! With this level of assessment I won't be surprised if future wars will happen for building a bridge or maybe paving a road!! And I really was shocked when he pictured Iraq like peaceful country where children play and people laugh happily, guess what Mr. Moore you are wrong coz I live in Iraq and children weren't playing they were working to live and people weren't smiling they were either afraid of getting killed or arrested for no reason or just because they don't like Saddam and they dared to say so.
I really don't know why you have to cheat to make the people believe you coz the whole world knew how the Iraqi people suffered from Saddam and you try to show that they were happy with him! In the same superficial manner you used to show that Iraq was a happy place, one could use the pictures of children singing around Stalin celebrating his birthday to show that people loved Stalin and they were happy.
Several Iraqi bloggers have posted reflections on September 11, 2001. Mohammed writes:
We don't need to look deeper to discover their intentions as they were made clear in 9/11 they're clear now in Iraq.
God bless the souls of the innocents who lost their lives in 9/11.
God bless the souls of those who lost their lives defending freedom.
May God give us the strength and determination to achieve victory in this war.
Hammorabi writes about an Al-Arabiyah retrospective on 9/11:
The question of the programme was "Do you think that there are organizations other than Al-Qaeda responsible for the 11 Sep 2001 attacks in NY?!"
More than 85% of the callers voted for YES! Less than 15% voted for no!
Conspiracy theories are also on Zeyad of Healing Iraq's mind:
I spent the bulk of my time a few days ago closely following the various Arab satellite channels and their extensive coverage on the present state of Islam, global terrorism and the Arab world three years after the earthquake of September 11th.
Not surprisingly, a few channels, such as the Iranian based Al-Alam and Hizbollah's mouthpiece Al-Manar, focused on recycled conspiracy theories that have long been debunked and rubbish speculations unsupported by even the slightest evidence (Al-Alam named its program "9/11, The Hoax Of The Century").
Ays of Iraq at a Glance interviews the goalkeeper of the Iraqi soccer team:
Yesterday I was in AlHurriya Olympic Swimming Pool together with my friends, while we were there, the Iraqi soccer team alternates entered the place with the goalkeepers coach Ahmed Jasim..
I met one of the players, Akram Sabeeh, the goalkeeper and talked for few minutes, then I asked some questions and told him that I'd publish his words on the internet and he's agreed, so I gladly began my questions:
A: What do you feel when you play now? I think there's a difference than those days during the ex-regime?
Akram: look, I was seriously afraid when I was playing, they were really horrible days under Uday, I was afraid to do anything that might be misunderstood and the result would be the jail.
Now, I feel free when I play soccer, I feel that I'm playing to improve myself and never afraid of anyone.
Read the whole thing.
Finally, a new blogger, Neurotic Iraqi Wife:
I am an Iraqi woman who absolutely adores her HUBBY, but HUBBY is too busy rebuilding the country. We just got married 4 months ago so in reality I am still a new bride, or so they say. Whenever I talk to someone they ask how is the "aroosa doing", aroosa=bride and then how is the "irees doing" irees=groom. And the most normal expression after that "hessa shidoo il himma oo jeeboo jahal" oh god which literally translates into "cmon work hard at IT and get some kids".....hmmm how do they suppose we can have kids if me and HUBBY are separated by thousands of miles, is there and einstein somewhere that has a solution?
Dave Schuler posts regularly to his own weblog, The Glittering Eye. The Carnival was originally created by Ryan Boots.
