A Family in Baghdad

Here's an interesting link to a Baghdad Blog. Hat tip to Corked Bats.

A Family in Baghdad posts diary entries, many of them in English, by a middle-class Shiite mother living in Baghdad. The general tenor of the text is anti-war and resentful toward America. That is to be expected: the family was connected to the Baathist regime and did well before the war. They recognized that there was great evil and hated Saddam, but also knew that their prosperity depended on his continuance. One of the mother's entries explains:

Perhaps, if the war on Iraq didn’t happen, I would have continued living my life the way it was… an engineer, a manager of a sales shop for water treatment devices, domestic, industrial, and commercial, and the new branch for swimming pools and their pumps, accessories, and the many other details. Perhaps I would have read to learn more about my career, and get to know about the new companies and products, I would’ve had many responsibilities, and sales duties. For life never stops, and learning and development are very important factors for success.But, the war took place, I was hurt by all that happened to Iraq, and the Iraqis, and I couldn’t live on as if nothing has changed…

One of her sons, Raed, has his own blog, Raed in the Middle, which is decidedly anti-American and has gained a degree of notoriety. His blog is very political and contains a lot of anti-war/anti-Bush material.

A second son, Khalid, also has a blog, Secrets in Baghdad, which exhibits a slightly paranoid style. Here's a sample:

Well...
something fishy is hapening in Baghdad..

since the day after the day of the elections, Baghdad became damn silent, although all the security measurments have stopped after the elections, the streets are opened again and the concrete blocks disapeared from the streets and bridges.

my ears are about to hurt me, no explosions at all!

i mean...

at ALL!

so: Life of Iraqis have defenately improved because of the elections.

wait a second...

now, couldn't this be exactly what "they" want us to think?

which brings back the supposadly naive issue back to the surface: is it possible that the Americans themselves are making, or at last prticipating in making these explosions in the city?

dont give me these looks!

walk with me in the streets and lets make a servey!who thinks that the American are responsible for these actions?

you would be amazed of the percentage of people that do!

in so many occasions, when a car bomb explodes, you find an eye witness telling you that he saw an American helicopter launching a missile towards a car in the street, i talked to one of those eye witnesses myself right after one of the car bombs exploded.

You get the picture.

Yet another son, Majid, is a student in Canada who is actively organizing against the war but his blog isn't very political. Here's his blog, Me vs Myself.

What makes these blogs so interesting is that they offer a window into the opposition the US is facing on the ground in Iraq. These aren't insurgents, but they do provide insight into the minds of people who have supported the insurgency. Read them and learn.

The mother is also giving lessons in Arabic on her site. Check it out.