Salam Pax, analyzed again
: Bryan Preston of Junkyard Blog dissects Baghdad blogger Salam Pax for the National Review Online. He covers pretty much the same turf David Warren did a week ago. They both conclude that Salam Pax is a privileged son of Ba’athist power in Iraq. But then they both go one step too far judging the man and his motives before knowing fully his stance and his role. Not saying that’s right, not saying that’s wrong, only saying that’s premature. Preston concludes:
As a supposed insider, his opinions carry weight with his numerous readers in a way that official Pentagon briefings or U.S. press reports do not. They shouldn’t, because those opinions still flow from his old elite ways, and from a lifetime of steep indoctrination in party thinking. He is interested in reworking the truth about the Baath party both to assuage his own guilt and to get himself a leg up in the chaotic new Iraq. But that doesn’t make him an official agent of influence. It just makes him a quirky, iconoclastic Iraqi whose life of irresponsible leisure has come to an abrupt end. His anti-American spin reflects an unconscionable irresponsibility and an effort to save himself, and truth just gets in the way of that. Thus, he is an untrustworthy witness to history.
: Update: Bryan Preston has more to say in my comments.
