The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
From Iraq
: Iraqi blogger Mohammad doesn’t want no stinkin’ UN running his country:
When I heard about the decision of the coalition to get UN involved the in the process of authority handover, I grew really restless, and what made me more worried is that
I read Faiza’s blog and was dissappointed to see so many anti Bush rants. She did mention that she had received many angry emails from Americans. This does not surprize me because it seems that she decides to post only antiwar messages and complains about our military causing all the havoc in Iraq.
My sense is she is ungrateful for our efforts to stabilize Iraq and have a type of democratic nation in the heart of the middle east. Maybe if more Iraqis would assist our soldiers by pointing out the bad guys she would have less to whine about.
I emailed her and told her so.
I came across this website from reading the mention in Time Magazine. I am excited and impressed with this site, and I know it will become part of my daily read. This is the truth, whether or not I agree all the time, it is the opinions that reflect the ideals of America. And I’m hooked.
Thank you!
Brittany
I’m struck by the fact that Iraqi bloggers, with a few exceptions, seem to be a secular lot. Of course, this is a pretty selective bunch — people who know English, have computers and electricity, and aren’t under seige by the combined forces of the U.S. and Sadr’s fascist brigade (before the hawks jump down my throat for bunching them together: just remember that when you’re trying to blog, gunfire from any source is probably somewhat distracting). I read as many of them as I can with great interest, but as a journalist, I don’t think they’re all that revealing.
Jeff: keep reading for a bit and you’ll see right-wing war-supporters constantly try and portray the Iraqi bloggers as the real voice of the Iraqi people. The fact that they’re basically unrepresentative of the general population is precisely why they’re fussed over so much. And it shows why the “citizen journalist” blog phenomenon is nothing more than the same partisan battles played out in more traditional media except for a lot more navel-gazing and grammatical mistakes.
It won’t take more than a month to realize Jarvis and many others are lightweights, intellectually speaking.
Why did you change the flag and why for f***s sake did you make it look a bit like the Israeli one????? America is stupid.
Dear Faiza,
How ignorant are you? Are you still one of those ignorant people who refer to civilian deaths as deaths? No, they’re collatteral damage. As for Iraq being a battleground, in polite society we refer to that as the “fly-trap”, it was yet another great idea pushed by right-wing bloggers (who if I remember showed no hesitation in their support for the term: imagine that, turning someone else’s country in to a battleground).
When are we going to see one person from that juggernaut who drove us to war resign? And I’m not confining it to the government; i think those war-bloggers who did so much to justify the president’s always absent case have to answer for their claims (that Sullivan is even employed in the first place is a constant test of my faith in man’s rationality). This is real accountability.
The Marines are taking fire from the train station in Fallujah as I type. They just blew up a truck and the occupants ran into a building and they blew up the building too. I think the cease fire is over and a military offensive has begun.
“Jeff: keep reading for a bit and you’ll see right-wing war-supporters constantly try and portray the Iraqi bloggers as the real voice of the Iraqi people. The fact that they’re basically unrepresentative of the general population is precisely why they’re fussed over so much.”
Since the Iraqi bloggers disagree with each other over everything, why is it so hard to imagine they might represent a valid cross-section of Iraqi opinion? Especially since every poll taken in Iraq since the war supports the same range of opinion?
Iraq under Saddam was a modern industrialized state with a strong middle class, and on the secular end of the Arab spectrum. Many of these fundamentalist clerics are being funded by the Iranian and Syrian govts to destabilize any secular democratic movement in Iraq. But the Iranian people don’t like the mullahs and would have a much more secular society if they could. Iraqis repeatedly vote and poll against Islamic theocracy.
So the Iraqi bloggers seem pretty representative to me.
I find myself amazed that Faiza could consider anything in USAToday either tasteless or meaningless.
Perhaps she hasn’t kept up with their superb “American Idol” coverage.
Ali’s list describes…… DICK CHENEY!
Jeff & Bill –
And who are we supposed to trust as revealing the truth, the JOURNALISTS?
Why should we, I don’t see my opinion represented in the Chicago Tribune’s Editorial section EVER, and whats more, even a not particularly politically up to date person like myself finds statistics in my local newspaper that are completely fabricated (same Chi Tribune).
I’ve got friends in the U.N., friends in the Marines, friends who support the war, and friends who don’t, and they’ve basically told me — don’t trust the news. It isn’t what is happening on the ground.
So Jeff…clean up your profession, or stop complaining about us poor members of the general public becoming enchanted with Bill’s so-called-naval gazing whilst reading blogs.
here’s a trial balloon for bill-franky-jeff:
has it occurred to you that without our intervention the notion of an iraqi blogging woud be similar in scope to a north korean blogging….or a cuban blogging…or a Chinese blogging….are you catching the drift?
no? it’s called freedom. Iraqi’s have it now, however tentative. As soon as we crush these dirtbag Islamo-fascist types in najaf and fallujah….then we’ll see a real blog explosion over there.
BTW, Im a reporter at a paper that has a correspondant over there. It’s clear to us all that the media has not fully reported just how better things are.
Has anyone actually vetted these Iraqi blogs as genuine? I ask because the bloggers on IraqTheModel write with such Western colloquialisms and style that they sound as if they’re in Cincinnati. I mean, they keep referring to “God”, not “Allah”, and so forth. Is everyone entirely sure these aren’t hoax bloggers?
I mean, I certainly hope not. But it’s hard to believe that someone that was born and raised in Baghdad could sound like he lives next door to me in New York. Just a thought.
John didn’t even bother to read the USAToday article. Just blurt out your conspiracy theory when the worlds events are not to your liking.
Rod,
So now we’re being reviled throughout the world for a war that had no reason because (drum roll please) Iraqis can now use Blogger.com
I’m so happy that the thousands of people who’ve died in this blossoming civil war died for a reason.
Further, I am simply astounded you would say that your reporter says things are so much better than being reported. I have two friends out there at the moment (in the press) and on Friday when I asked one whether it was as bad as it looked on tv, he immediately replied “it’s probably worse”
And send this story on to your friend and get him to tell this journalist she’s obviously living in the ghetto of Baghdad and to move quickly to where your friend is.
http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a1493.asp
And regarding the label islamo-fascists (you know I’m sure Hitchens is secretly embarrassed he coined that phrase) when we will accept that not every fighter there in Iraq is a blood relation of either Saddam or Bin Laden? How long will it take you to understand there is now a growing resistance movement among Iraqis for the simple fact that no one likes living under an occupation. “No one loves an armed liberator” someone wisely observed more than 200 years ago.
Franky, we’ll believe it when you find a fighter who isn’t a Baathist, a foreigner from Syria or Yemen or carrying Iranian money in his pocket.
Jesus christ
We just never learn do we. We get dragged in to a war on the supposed links between Al-Queda and Saddam. We fight and win the war then get confirmation there was no link.
Now, because the US authorities in Iraq tell us that really all their opponents are persoanlyl working for either Syria, Iran, Yemen, Dr. Evil, Bin Laden, we have people like Robin on hand to just lap it up. What about the recent 50% no-show the Iraq troops we helped train? (sorry 40% no-show and 10% went over to the other side).
If the Iraqis are so glad we’re there, why are we always, but always the only ones fighting? Where’s the Iraqi contigent in Falluja?
I’m sorry for being a little rude in my response, but your gullibility angers me because it has an impact on my life: if you just went around believing everything Bush, Kerry spouted out and lived alone with no impact on my life, I would pity you but carry on my merry way. As it is, knowing there are people like you out there who won’t question a single damn assertion made by the government leads us in to the pointless wars and greater misery. With such gullibility, the burden to convince is significantly lightened.
Franky, we disagree, about much, if not all. But Im hardly in the tank for the USG 24-7—if it was up to me, we’d have a lot less of it. Your presumption of being posessed with the sole faculties of critical thinking is laughable.
I have numerous and sundry beefs with the war–why was WMD even brought up–why not hit Syria and Iran at once–they’re the real paymasters and sponsors of terror? AFter all, no matter who you read/talk to/vote for, the mullahs are close to the bomb…not good. that’s one beef….got a lot more.
Just dont see Iraq sans Hussein as a bad thing. I think the more dead baathists and iranian/syrian soldiers there are, the better.
cutest thing for laughs….”reviled around the world”…..ooh that’s meaningful. except for he dozens of nations that are actively or quietly cooperating. Actively reviled by the world’s left you mean. We’re not playing well in Paris right now? good. cairo? good. Moscow? good.
Those pricks will really feel the heat once the oil for whatever scandal drops…..
We’re certainly agreed that Hussein in a dungeon is a good thing and the quicker he’s tied to a post, blindfolded and offered his final cigarette the better. No arguments. But that never was the argument. Only the insanest fringes of the debate said Saddam was not an evil man. So now are we going after Mugabe? the killers in the Congo?
The reason we don’t hit Iran and Syria once and for all is that we can’t trust this government to carry out what it says it will do. They’ve performed such a woefully inadequate job since taking over the country, that to them give them more freedom to screw up the world is insanity. Call them the reverse-midas. The grubbiness of the project from the get-go when we tried to install that little con-artist Chalabi is simply horrifying for someone who believes in the ideals of the US.
I’m not sure if there are now dozens of countries helping us now. Spain pulled out, as did the Central american contigent. And even those countries that are supporting us, the war is deeply, deeply unpopular (Italy, UK etc etc. – in fact I would ask you to name one country in the world where the majority approve of what we’re doing in Iraq)
The only chance people will really start helping us is when they see that we’re in real danger of doing permanent lasting damage to the world (when screwing around in the middle east, such a statement does not appear to be hyperbole).
Yes the oil for food scandal is a huge scandal and the corrupt ought to be dragged through the streets. But I believe that taking us in to this false war, and the minimum evidence they provided to support the war and their ignoring of the massive global opposition to the war is a greater scandal.
Franky’s comments remind me of the reaction of many on the Left to 9/11: the people who did this must hate US for the exact same reasons I hate US.
And P.S. Hitchens didn’t coin the term “islamo-fascists”, Stephen Scwartz, a muslim coined it. Hitchens came up with “fascism with an islamic face.” Get yer shit straight, moron.
SA Smith, yeah you really busted me on that one. It totally undermined my entire argument over the course of the war, who we’re fighting in Iraq, the corruption of the UN, all because I didn’t know it was Scwartz. Oh the shame, the shame.
So both Scwartz and Hitchens can share an ignroance of 20th century political movements.
(Smith, if you’re scratching that cranium of yours, and maybe your eyes are crossing over as you try to figure out why Al-Queda could in no way be described as fascist, I’ll be happy to educate you)
Now, do you have an argument or not to contribute? if not stop your little pissy sniping from the corner. If you do, straighten your back, wipe your snotty little nose and tackle one of my points like an adult.
Franky–I acknowledge that this war is mighty unpopular abroad—wish it were’nt, but it’s so, so no need to lie about. Israel may be the only other nation where it’s popular.
I insist that the long term effects of the war will be the precise opposite of what you maintain. That said, I’m not sure GWB has the nads to do what needs to be done in Iran. And needless to say, I cannot offer a whit of proof of a better future for Iraq, other than what I read and what our staff over there tells me.
Let’s play it like this–we disagree. You’ve dropped the silly sarcasm and made a legible case. I can learn from that.
I do not feel GWB lied; he just made the wrong case. Iran looms large, as does any deferred problem. Lets not even bring up the NorKs.
Best, Roddy
So Mohammed can smell the stinky smell from the UN and is not able to smell even stinkier US smell? Something must be wrong with his smelling sense then.
Bill,
“keep reading for a bit and you’ll see right-wing war-supporters constantly try and portray the Iraqi bloggers as the real voice of the Iraqi people….”.
Are you suggesting that Jeff should keep reading his own blog/site? He is doing exactly that.