Salam

Do I know any more about Iraq than most people? Probably not; I mean, I’ve never been there. However, for about a year, my lab partner at university was Iraqi, and we chatted about the place from time to time whilst programming, wiring up circuits, etc. I found out about some of the inconveniences of life in Iraq. For example, going home for the holidays entailed a flight to Jordan and a very long overland trip from there to Iraq. We never discussed politics, though, which seems a missed opportunity in retrospect.

Back in the present, there’s been a lot of discussion lately about “Where is Raed?”, a blog written by a guy in Iraq. At least, that’s what he claims, and the general consensus now seems to be that he really is there (I did have some links, but I lost them), based on IP forensics and similar. It’s well worth reading for an Iraqi perspective on the current war.

No one inside Iraq is for war (note I said war not a change of regime), no human being in his right mind will ask you to give him the beating of his life...There is no person inside Iraq (and this is a bold, blinking and underlined inside) who will be jumping up and down asking for the bombs to drop.

...

What is bringing on this rant is the question that has been bugging for days now: how could “support democracy in Iraq” become to mean “bomb the hell out of Iraq”? why did it end up that democracy won’t happen unless we go thru war? Nobody minded an un- democratic Iraq for a very long time, now people have decided to bomb us to democracy? Well, thank you! how thoughtful.

His name is Salam. The same as my former lab partner. It means “peace”, you know.