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| Iraq |
| Salam Pax is Alive and Blogging!!! |
| 2003-05-07 |
| Let me tell you one thing first. War sucks big time. Donât let yourself ever be talked into having one waged in the name of your freedom. Somehow when the bombs start dropping or you hear the sound of machine guns at the end of your street you donât think about your âimminent liberationâ anymore. That's just a start. There's a huge number of posts that he wrote while the war was on. Thank God and Allah and the deity of your choice he's okay. |
| Posted by:growler |
| #8 There are disturbing discrepancies in the entries which are posted at least for "26/4." The entry posted at The UK Guardian and at The Command Post includes an anecdote about a reporter named Burns. The entries posted on his own blog do not include this. I noticed this in a brief and cursory scan of the two differing versions. There may be more discrepancies. It is not possible to ascertain how much of the text was actually written by Salam Pax and how much may have been added or altered or changed by his "cousin" or someone else. Here is the URL for The Command Post link so you can see for yourself. Salam Pax Returns This makes it impossible to attribute authenticity to the material or accept its credibility. |
| Posted by: button 2003-05-08 06:48:40 |
| #7 Well, growler, I am also glad he's alive, and I've appreciated reading his posts and learning a little bit about Iraq and Baghdad from an Iraqi point of view. Yet I know there are many in Iraq that had lives much less comfortable and with fewer amenities than Internet access. This isn't just a rich vs. poor scenario--this is about Kurds and Shi'ites towns being gassed. This is about children's prisons and dissenters having their tongues cut out. In watching episode 9, "Why We Fight" of the "Band of Brothers" miniseries again earlier this week, I am reminded of how complicit many Germans were, Nazi or not, in the Holocaust. I wonder what kind of a background Salam has--has he turned anybody in for making a snide comment about Saddam? Did his parents have some party connections to account for their lifestyle? Did he or anyone close to him take part in the Kuwait invasion or the suppression of the rebels following it? The Iran/Iraq war? If Saddam were still in power, what would he be doing now to ensure his lifestyle remained secure? Would he walk the straight-and-narrow? Would he sacrifice anyone for his own self-preservation? Would he slander anyone merely because that person was a rival in some way? I don't have any problems with anyone who's upper class in a fair and open society, but I'm suspicious of those who are in an oppressive and intolerant society. People don't usually reach that tier in those societies without conforming and complying with the regime, and I'm curious to what extent Salam and family did. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-05-07 18:39:50 |
| #6 Glad those Posts got there. Sorry for the looooong delay. I procrastinate, but do get the job done. God, I love The Post. It's the best entertainment you can get for a quarter. And, as Ken Layne reports, so do many others. Still, I think those wesels made for The Post's best cover of the year. As for Salam, yeah, maybe he's upper class. So what. He gave, and gives, some real insight into life in Iraq. He's one of the few I can stomach despite his not being gung-ho for all this. And I read somewhere that he may be gay. IF that's true, life couldn't have been all that easy for him there. Anyways, I'm just glad he's alive. |
| Posted by: growler 2003-05-07 15:10:33 |
| #5 I gotta agree with Chuck. Glad to see Salam made it through the war--but then he doesn't seem to have the scars, welts, severed ears, missing fingernails, and broken bones the poor souls who truly suffered under Saddam have. Yes, "War sucks big time," but, for many, living under Saddam sucked even worse. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-05-07 13:49:23 |
| #4 He does seem to verify that he was one of the social elite in Baghdad with these posts. Perhaps he will be de-Baathisized. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-05-07 13:11:17 |
| #3 growler Thanks for the Post, it was well wait the wait. |
| Posted by: Jack Bross 2003-05-07 12:19:46 |
| #2 whoo hoo! |
| Posted by: Becky 2003-05-07 11:59:50 |
| #1 growler - thanks for the Post cover last week! It's a keeper! |
| Posted by: Raj 2003-05-07 11:05:22 |