REMEMBER RIVERBEND?

Literally years ago I first discovered the female Iraqi blogger Riverbend (http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/). Reading her blog almost every day I was able to follow the way things only seemed to be getting worse after the fall of Sadam. In her blog River recounts the things that she or her roommate (and family member, I think) "E" have experienced in the time since the Americans came.

After quite a while of reading I began to grow a little weary of her accounts of life in Baghdad. I have always had sympathy for her, her fellow Iraqis and what they all are going through, but reading about it (along with all the other incredibly depressing stuff I read) every day got to be a bit too much for me so I stopped. Every once in a while though I stop in and see how she's doing. Today was one of those days. In [http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#114357319665675277|her most recent entry] she talks of a disturbing thing she read on a local news show's ticker. Here's a clip:

E. was sitting at the other end of the living room, taking apart a radio he later wouldn’t be able to put back together. I called him over with the words, “Come here and read this- I’m sure I misunderstood…” He stood in front of the television and watched the words about corpses and Americans and puppets scroll by and when the news item I was watching for appeared, I jumped up and pointed. E. and I read it in silence and E. looked as confused as I was feeling.

The line said:

وزارة الدفاع تدعو المواطنين الى عدم الانصياع لاوامر دوريات الجيش والشرطة الليلية اذا لم تكن برفقة قوات التحالف العاملة في تلك المنطقة

The translation:

“The Ministry of Defense requests that civilians do not comply with the orders of the army or police on nightly patrols unless they are accompanied by coalition forces working in that area.”

That’s how messed up the country is at this point.

In short, people who look like the military may not be the military. Iraqis are now being told to not trust any military unless Americans (or other coalition soldiers) are there, as well. This is even more frightening if you consider that [http://thepete.com/iraq-civil-warzone-or-fluffy-happy-playzone/|the Americans have been accused of a massacre recently].

I often find myself complaining about not being able to trust anyone on TV to privde the truth. This is nothing compared to what the Iraqis now must deal with. They can't trust military people to not kill them.

On a somewhat lighter note, Riverbend also did [http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#114160514663657658|her own version of the Oscars], substituting Hollywood stars with local and international occupation-related celebs.

Here's the main URL again just in case:

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com