The brothers on radio
: Omar and Mohammed were on Brian Lehrer’s WYNC show yesterday. You can listen here. “Life under Saddam wasn’t living,” says Omar. “It wasn’t life.” They tell him that they are grateful for their liberation and that the stories from the media and the CIA about the state of life in Iraq aren’t accurate. Mohammed says he’s shocked when Americans ask whether they can go out; it’s a big country and much more than Fallujah, they say.
Lehrer notes that they won a conservative “warblogger” award from Right Wing News and asks whether conservatives have their best interests at heart; they say they object to the “warblogger” label. “I am not a warblogger, I am a freedom blogger. That’s what I support: the liberation of Iraq. I support freedom in Iraq and in the region. I am not supporting war. But sometimes if war is the only way to liberate people, to free people from tyrants, then I’ll support it.”
I was a little surprised that Brian cast this in American political terms but he’s not alone. Last night, when I told the Wall Street Journal’s Dan Henninger that I’d introduced the brothers to Lehrer’s show, he said that was a good thing, for liberals need to hear their story. I think Americans should hear their story not for political reasons but for human reasons; we need to Well, I agree, but not because this is right or left but because it is good to make a human connection, American to Iraqi, and the weblogs are now making that possible.
Next, Brian puts it in religious/political terms, mentioning that the brothers are Sunni and asking about Sunni leaders’ calls for a boycott of the election. “Let me explain something,” Omar said. “First, I’m human. Second, I’m Iraqi. Third, I’m Muslim.” Well said.
