I wasn't aware that Saddam's minister of information Mohamed Saeed Al-Sahaf was not on the deck of cards of 55 most wanted. You may recall that after running through the entire list my eyes glazed over and I couldn't tell one from the other, so I must have missed that. Anyway, it seems that he's been trying to surrender to US forces in Baghdad, but since he's not on the most wanted list.. they refused to arrest him.



It's funny and sad at the same time. While we all enjoyed his ridiculous statements during the war, don't believe for one minute that he actually meant everything he said. You could tell from his eyes that he knew he wasn't making any sense, and that he was speaking with a gun pointed at his head from behind the scenes.

Who needs Las Vegas when we have our own Sin City to our north? I don't know where this reporter got his information from, but Baghdad was never a "conservative" city and all kinds of vice flourished regularly under Saddam's watch.



In any case, it makes for entertaining reading and you can't help but smile at Baghdad residents' new found freedom; freedom to be as bad or as good as they want!

Sometimes I wonder how come if Osama Bin Laden was so hell-bent on getting the US out of Arab soil, he would pull off the one event guaranteed to step up US presence in the region? Why would he do something akin to an invitation?

Think about the US reaction to 9/11: First bomb Afghanistan where Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda is hiding, then wage war on Saddam who is supposedly connected to Al-Qaeda. Then after taking over Iraq, pull out the troops quietly from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, thus getting out of Bin Laden's hair yet maintaining presence in the Gulf ...... cigars for everyone!!

Now if that wasn't a whopping conspiracy theory, I don't know what is!

The "First Strike Era" is now upon us, according to Donald Rumsfeld - he of the "YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!" approach to international relations, to quote Jon Stewart. This means that the US "has entered a new era in which it must pre-emptively seek out and prevent attacks by terrorists and terrorist states".

Of course, this may have the reverse effect of pissing off even more countries and driving more people crazy enough to contemplate more terrorist attacks against the US. But why quibble?

This is bad.... seriously bad. It's everyone's worst nightmare come to life. I don't even want to think about the repercussions, nor can I bear to hear some Pentagon flack dismiss its importance, as will surely happen.

It seems my friends at QHATE have called it a day.... Blogging is time consuming and exhausting. I feel their pain. We all started in the frenzy of the days leading up to and then during the war and we were energized by the tumultuous events. There was so much going on and so much to talk about. But not being professional writers who do this for a living, we were bound to get tired sooner or later. I'm surprised I lasted this long, and that I ever had it in me to start a blog in the first place!

I'm not going to stop it yet, but I will be slowing down.. and I might start a new random, general interest blog where I can talk about anything, not just politics, and at my own pace.

Hmm... Christopher Hitchens says Ahmad Chalabi isn't as bad as he's made out to be. He may have a point. Iraq could do a lot worse. And it has!

Today is Saddam's birthday. He would be 66 if he was alive. I want to see how the residents of Baghdad commemorate this day. Reports say that many Iraqis, cowed by fear and still not used to the freedom suddenly thrust upon them, are convinced he's planning one last birthday surprise before he goes down in flames.

In the past, his birthday was a week-long celebration of his "great achievements" with parades, poems and more portraits and statues erected for the occasion all around Iraq. Bureaucrats were forced to celebrate with cakes and balloons. Schools had the week off. Iraqi TV had round the clock coverage of the celebrations.... I remember a few months before the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, a friend of mine was enthralled by the whole spectacle and would force us to sit through the ceremonies. I used to yell at him to turn it off and that this lunatic had killed and tortured thousands of Iraqis and that we were probably next!

Couldn't access Blogger Pro all day today for some reason.... Anyway, NY Times arts critic Frank Rich has a sobering article about the loss of Iraqi heritage in the looting that followed the fall of Baghdad. Many have downplayed the importance of this tragedy and tried to pass the blame to wherever it might stick, but lost amidst all the finger-pointing is the fact that many of Bush's religious buddies will have lots to cry over. "Most of the early chapters of Genesis are believed to have been set in what only recently has been known as Iraq".

That'll go down well at the next White House Bible study...

I'm repeating this entry from Joe Conason, in full:
===========
"In the continuing absence of Saddam Hussein and his sons, Tariq Aziz is an important symbol of the defeated regime and a potential scapegoat for its worst crimes (despite his low rank in the army's card deck). It is also conceivable, if unlikely, that he knows where his old boss might be hiding -- although Saddam didn't survive this long by ignoring the problem of a squealer being captured.

But the evil dictator may not be the only figure worried by what the suddenly retired foreign minister could blab. If his memory is as good as his English, the cigar-chomping Aziz will recall events and personalities from the regime's long courtship with the West. For example, he may remember the day in March 1984 when Donald Rumsfeld dropped by as an envoy from the Reagan administration. At the time, Rummy's stated agenda was the Iran-Iraq war (in which our government armed and encouraged both sides), as well as "bilateral relations and the Middle East situation," according to the Associated Press. But researchers at the Institute for Policy Studies have uncovered a cache of documents that suggest his real aim was to convince Saddam to approve a new oil pipeline -- to be constructed by Bechtel! -- between Iraq and Jordan.

Once Aziz gets started about the good old days, he may also remember the time when an associate of Henry Kissinger visited with Saddam himself -- as part of a corporate delegation sponsored by the U.S.-Iraq Business Forum -- to figure out ways to reschedule the regime's debt and arrange more imports. The forum was actually a thinly veiled lobbying outfit, sponsored and operated by the Iraqi foreign ministry through its embassy in Washington.

No doubt Aziz knows about matters embarrassing to the French, Germans, Russian and British, too. There will probably be no reporter embedded deeply enough to speak with him for a long while."
===========

This like something out of a bad movie... next thing you know, he'll die in an "accident".

I always thought the "pack of cards" approach to capturing Saddam and his cronies was a bit silly, but it seems to be working. Now when they're done, they should start with this new pack. And it looks like like the search for lost treasures can start everywhere but in Iraq!

By the way, for those of you visiting from overseas, our weekends in Kuwait are on Thursday and Friday, with Friday being our "Sabbath". That's why you'll notice a slowdown in my blogging and it will just get "worse" as summer creeps in and I spend my weekends outdoors... Which brings me to the question of how long I should continue with this blog.. As you may recall, I started it on the eve of the war and there was so much going on that I wanted to write about. Otherwise, I never thought I had it in me to write everyday - a mixture of apathy and a fairly normal life, certainly not worth writing about.

There are still many Iraq-related issues to discuss, but I feel that we've now entered the "cerebral" phase, i.e. "thinking" about Iraq's present and future which - frankly - I'm not equipped to do! So expect this blog to continue until I run out of steam ;-)

So I took a day off yesterday... it was too nice and I had a party at home. When word came in that Tareq Aziz had given himself up, a buzz went through the crowd and it was even more reason to party and have fun. We'll wait to see how his story unfolds. It's interesting that he surrendered instead of getting caught, and I bet he'll have valuable information on Saddam's whereabouts... then again, maybe not

Here's an article that is causing a great amount of hair pulling and vein popping among America's more extreme right wing media figures (Savage, O'Reilly..etc.). It calls on all those who opposed the war to lay down their misgivings and celebrate the freedom of an oppressed nation, finally rid of a great evil. Yet the writer also confesses to feelings of guilt over wishing things would go wrong just to vindicate his pessimism. It's a very well-written article that presents a compelling argument, even if I don't fully agree with it.

Please take the time to read it carefully and S-L-O-W-L-Y. If you find yourself scratching your head, go back and read it again. Oh, and please spare me the commentary if you have no interest in reading it.

And speaking of short attention spans, here's a valuable history lesson for the Bush "history is for sissies" administration. It should explain to them why Iraqis aren't all that pleased to have US forces around for too long.

Alright so where the $@#% are they?! You know damn well who/what I'm talking about... Saddam, his sons, the WMDs, our POWs, the chemical weapons, the "smoking gun", oh and lets throw in Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar into the mix while we're at it.

It's just a matter of time before the Bush administration gets bored with the search and starts to downplay the importance of crossing out each item on the "shopping list" I just made. This morning, driving into work, I heard the ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, say that UN weapons inspectors "won't be needed"!!

Now correct me if I'm wrong - and I'm sure you will - but if I was trying to convice the world that there were WMDs and chemical weapons all over Iraq, wouldn't I make sure the the UN inspectors are given unfettered access to find them? The Bush administration spent months accusing Saddam of not cooperating with the inspectors, which I'm sure he wasn't. Now that he's gone (or is he?) why not let the inspectors back in?

This man says that Iraq destroyed all its weapons before the war started and that some were smuggled into Syria during the 1990's. But are we supposed to just take his word? Let the UN inspectors back in to confirm it!!

PS: If you're going to start attacking the UN in your comments, please don't. That would be too predictable.

Hey... here's Madonna singing in front of the Kuwaiti flag!! I suppose this is from the reworked video of "American Life"...



I can't be bothered to get rid of that banner across her face...

Here's a searing indictment of the Arab media's performance during the war. It duped the masses into thinking the coalition was hell-bent on destroying Iraq, conveniently forgetting Saddam's contributions to the destruction of a once great country. I particularly like this quote in response to a question asking whether the Arab media outlets can ever be objective:

"In my view, it is not possible because the Arab media is controlled by the prevailing general atmosphere and by people who have been fed on the slogans of incitement and inflammatory propaganda for more than half a century. They are captives of those who fed them and brought them up, those who controlled their mentality in which long-standing imaginary ideas, fables and superstitions were planted."

A friend of mine visiting from Amman tells me how Jordanians are in despair over the loss of a great leader. Saddam, that is. It's strange that they should still think that way with the large number of Iraqis living in Jordan, who escaped Saddam's wrath. Any one of them must surely have a horror story to tell.

Every time my friend argued with them that Saddam's departure was the best thing to happen to Iraq, they accused him of being "pro-Kuwaiti"!!

Crappy weather. Sandstorm last night + thunderstorm now = Mud everywhere! April is the most unstable month of the year in Kuwait. But on a brighter note, the waterways are officially open for fishing boats and divers to resume activity after being suspended during the war. Last Friday was one of those gorgeous, blindingly sunny days with a sea as flat as glass, but nobody was allowed to venture out. I looked out at the sea, enjoying the serenity, but my view was obstructed in the horizon by a hulking battleship. Not a pretty sight, and I'm glad they'll be retreating to deeper waters soon. And at least our long summer isn't shot to hell!

Very tired today... no mood for blogging. I'll catch up with you all tomorrow.

Here's a creepy look at an Iraqi primary school's Civics curriculum during Saddam's reign of terror. Far from learning such banal things as how government works or what the constitution means (did they ever have one?), this lovely course indoctrinates young tykes in the finer intricacies of the security apparatus and the magnificent achievements of their glorious leader, among other things.

It is this extreme damage to the minds of future Iraqi generations that will be hardest to fix. Even a little injured girl who was brought to Kuwait for treatment, found herself inadvertently expressing her love for Saddam while she was at the hospital. Her father just shook his head in embarrassment, and asked not to hold it against her... Not that anyone with half a brain ever would; she was just a little girl and that's all she learned at school.

This just in from a friend of mine who has a poster of "Mingash" above her desk at work. It seems their no-nonsense chairman paid a surprise visit to the office.... and he was not amused ;-P

I'm a huge fan of The Daily Show and a bigger fan of Jon Stewart before he joined the show. It's a shame we don't get Comedy Central here in Kuwait to catch his funny take on the war in Iraq, so I'll have to settle for the Sunday night "international" edition on CNN even though it's on very late and I always forget to tape it (not tonight though! ) For those of you unfamiliar with the show's charms, many articles have been written in praise of its unique war coverage but this one is the best.



By the way, for American visitors, the CNN we get here (CNN International) bears no resemblance to the one you get in the US. It's far from perfect but actually easier to watch and is less prone to hysterics. Also, it has more sober anchors who seem to know what they're talking about, and whose professionalism in comparison with their US edition counterparts becomes more obvious when it converges with the American broadcast. Never was that more squirm-inducing than when I watched Paula Zahn dutifully taking notes during one of Rumsfeld's many press conferences like a schoolgirl and then reciting them back to Wolf Blitzer in Kuwait to see if she "got it right".... on the air!! Blitzer was visibly mortified!

Is this the ugliest bedroom you've ever seen, or what? A lot has been written about Uday Hussein's decadent lifestyle - a lethal mix of guns, drugs and porn. And while it may not differ from your average gangster's life, it takes on a whole new level of obscenity when it's how the son of a head of state chooses to live.



So while the Iraqis starved under the sanctions, Uday and his pals lived it up by screwing and snorting everything in sight, and paying for their exploits with oil money.

Here's more on Bechtel which, by the way, is something of a household name here in Kuwait. I don't know where or when it started or how widespread, but I've often heard people joke about calling in Bechtel to build their house or fix their roof...

This is getting to be a real embarrassment, but I'm sure the White House will find some way to spin it to its favor. "The head of a U.S. presidential panel on cultural property has resigned in protest at the failure of U.S. forces to prevent the wholesale looting of priceless treasures from Baghdad's antiquities museum". I'm glad someone had the guts to do that since the rest of the administration just can't be bothered.

I remember very clearly in the days just before the war started, I heard some archaeolgists talking on VOA about how they had received assurances from the Pentagon that Iraq's cultural heritage would be protected. No bombs fell on any sites, which is great, but surely a few guards could've been spared to protect the museums from looting and destruction.

I can understand looting, since the thieves obviously hope to make a killing selling the artifacts on some black market, but I still cannot fathom the destruction and burning.

A weird kind of depression is sweeping across the Arab world in the aftermath of the war, as everyone tries to figure out what the future holds and wondering if it could possibly get worse. Feelings of anxiety are no doubt stoked by a daily diet of inflammatory media broadcasts. But all is not lost, says this great editorial in Arab News . The writer sees the an opportunity to learn from this war and a chance for Arabs to "face up to the challenges confronting them and to focus their attention on the development of human resources, science and technology and build their economies in a free, just and peaceful environment"

Speaking of raw deals... I heard through the grapevine that all the Kuwaitis, who assisted the US military with translation duties for weeks leading up to and during the war, got sent home with a nice pat on the back and thanked for "volunteering". I'm not sure how much they were supposed to be paid per day, but it was supposed to be a well-paid assignment. I even considered joining myself, but I had just started a new job and wasn't about to disappear indefinitely.... Of course, they all took weeks of unpaid leave to help the US troops, under the assumption that they would be paid, so now their Kuwaiti employers may or may not make it up for them.

Hooray for Bechtel... and Halliburton too while we're at it! The two companies are the lucky beneficiaries of huge contracts worth billions for reconstruction and oil field repair in postwar Iraq. Isn't this sort of thing supposed to go through a bidding process?



Meanwhile, British companies are understandably upset at getting the middle finger from the Bush administration, and getting cutting off from the most lucrative reconstruction deals.

I feel like such an idiot for losing my temper earlier at that editor of Al-Arabi. It turns out I jumped to a fast conclusion and that the angry man I saw on TV is editor of a small Egyptian magazine with the same name. The Al-Arabi that I referred to is headed by a Kuwaiti...... who's a friend of my father's!!!!!!!

The forever-cranky Donald Rumsfeld actually has a few hidden talents. Behind that crusty demeanor and short fuse, the withering looks and sharp putdowns, he's really a gentle old man who just wants us all to be happy ;-)

And this just in from the Weekly World News, whose top notch investigative journalists have unearthed this little gem about Saddam's colourful life before taking power. It seems Ronald Reagan was not the first president to boast an acting career before entering politics. Reagan, however, had nothing to be ashamed of (aside from Bedtime for Bonzo) and at least became president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Which is more than I can say for Saddam!!!

Disclaimer: For those of you unfamiliar with WWN, it's a crazy tabloid that makes things up.

Upon arriving in Kuwait, some idiot reporter asked the uncle of Ali (the orphaned child victim of the bombings): "how is his family?", to which the uncle replied: "they're dead". Then another idiot reporter asked the uncle: "and how are his brothers and siters?", the uncle replied: "they're dead too, they're all dead". I wish people would do their homework/research before asking questions like that. We've seen and heard for the last few days that his entire family was killed. Weren't those reporters watching?

I was just watching a rerun of a programme that aired last night on Abu Dhabi TV. The discussion centered on Kuwait's supposedly new-found status as outcast and pariah among Arab nations, for allegedly backing the invading colonialist powers and reveling in the subjugation and humiliation of the Iraqi people. The Egyptian guest speaker, who I'd never seen before, railed against Kuwait for taking such a "shameful" stand and for gambling away its own future by backing the US who has occupied half of our territory, and for participating in the slaughter of the Iraqi people and on and on and on......

Then the little identifying band appears under his angry face, and it turns out he's the editor-in-chief of Al-Arabi, one of the Arab world's best and longest running monthly magazines. It's a general interest magazine with top-quality writing on arts, politics, culture, health, economics and anything of importance to all Arabs. I put it on a par with magazines like Harper's. What this angry man failed to acknowledge - besides the crimes of Saddam against Kuwait and his own people - was that his employer is actually the Kuwaiti Government!!

Ladies and gentlemen... Al-Arabi was started in Kuwait and continues to be funded by Kuwait, and still enjoys a wide circulation across the Arab world and operates as a pan-Arab publication, with hardly anything identifying it as Kuwaiti, except for the masthead. The editor is entitled to his opinion and should be able to express it freely no matter how wrong he might be. But if he is so disgusted with Kuwait and all that we stand for...... then he should fucking resign!!

Did I say office? No, I'm not blogging from work!!

Sandstorms are back after a few weeks absence - in which they were NOT missed. Visibility is very bad, and I can barely see the building across the street from my office!! There goes the weekend :"-(

Sorry I'm late with Kanaan Makiya's latest dispatch - they're so damn irregular! He posted this entry 2 days ago as he entered Iraq for the first time in 30 years. He also ends with something I've suspected all along: That the museums were most likely looted by Saddam's loyalists!

Another optimistic editorial, this time in the NY Times, details the intellectual life and civil society that flourished in Iraq before the Baathist thugs took control. The author, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University, addresses the general skepticism towards Iraq's ability to build a democratic society. "Such arguments, then and now, ignore the traditions of civil society and cultural pluralism that existed before the Baath Party took power in 1968 and then remained dormant during 35 years of repression. Those traditions can be revived to help Iraq thrive and make a transition to democracy. Because the Baath Party's chauvinistic pan-Arabism and totalitarianism has for decades defined Iraq's image to the world, many foreigners assume that a Western-style civil society never existed there. From the modern state's founding in 1921, when Britain imposed the Hashemite monarchy, Iraq (despite the absence of democracy) built a rich and varied society of ethnic inclusiveness, artistic freedom and civic involvement."

The article's only fault is the ommission of Abdul-Karim Kassem's claims and threats against Kuwait in the early 60's. Otherwise, it's a great read.

And continuing our tradition of proper neighborly conduct, Iraqi teenager Ali Ismail Abbas, who lost both his arms and his entire family in the strikes on Baghdad, has been airlifted by the US military to Kuwait for treatment. His heartbreaking story has touched millions around the world, and we hope he will be well taken care of here.

How many hoaxes can we expect to reveal in the coming weeks? The British soldier who was "miraculously" saved by his Kevlar helmet, turned out to be nowhere near said helmet at the time of shooting. Of course, seeing as it was The Sun that carried the original story, we shouldn't be surprised..

Conspiracy Theorists of the World, Unite!! Was a secret deal, brokered by Saudi Arabia, the reason Baghdad fell so easily? Arab media are speculating that such a deal was arranged between the Baath Party and the US to hand over Baghdad, thus avoiding the expected bloodbath, dramatically shortening the war and, consequently, sparing the region from a protracted conflict and further instability. This article contains many "clues"... all of which I will reproduce for you right here:

1. None of the seven rescued POWs was hurt. On the contrary, all seven were found in good condition. All were found dressed in pajamas rather than the standard uniforms for prisoners of war, indicating that they were being treated as guests rather than as POWs. Usually, Arabs give pajamas to guests who sleep over in their houses.

2. Arab reports point out that POW Jessica Lynch was similarly treated; she was kept in the cleanest room in an Iraqi hospital until she was rescued on April 2.

3. In both cases, American forces were tipped off about the location of the POWs by unknown Iraqi citizens. Kuwaiti prisoners, by contrast, who were captured during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait more than 12 years ago, are only now being discovered.

4. To date, none of the seven war prisoners has spoken directly to American TV reporters, unlike American soldiers injured in the fighting, who became instant media sources. We are told the seven POWs were taken to Kuwait for medical treatment and intelligence debriefing.

5. American tanks rolled into Baghdad with very little resistance while Basra, nowhere near as heavily fortified as Baghdad, sustained almost three weeks of fierce resistance.

6. The fall of Baghdad was so sudden that it left many of the Arab and Muslim volunteers who went to Iraq to fight the coalition forces in total disarray. Initially given weapons and uniforms, thousands of these volunteers -- who came from Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Indonesia, Malaysia and elsewhere -- wound up having no one to tell them what to do. Al Jazeerah reports that some are now still fighting U.S. forces while others are actually attacking Iraqi civilians.

7. Baath forces refrained from destroying a single bridge in Baghdad, which could have blocked U.S. tanks access to the city, at least temporarily. Moreover, only a handful of Iraq's oil fields were set on fire, leaving the vast majority intact almost in accordance with Bush's demands.

8. None of the senior Baath officials has surrendered to date, with the exception of two high-level scientists. Instead, tens of thousands of Baath operatives managed to disappear without a sign of internal divisions. This strongly suggests that the departure of the Baath regime was ordered from the most senior levels and was highly organized. It also explains why most of the Iraqi forces, including the Republican Guards, were nowhere to be found when U.S. forces entered Baghdad.

9. Iraqi Ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Al-Douri, a high level Baath functionary, was quoted in both American and Arabic media as saying, "The game is over" and that he had not been in contact with Saddam Husssein for weeks. When asked why he used the word "game," the Ambassador replied, "the war is over." Meanwhile, Al-Jazeerah reported that he has been allowed to travel to Syria and that he may be asked to represent the new Iraqi government at the United Nations.

Hmmm...... veerry suspicioussssss.....

Has life returned to normal in Kuwait? You bet it has! Disruption, fear and trauma were the order of the day for the first two weeks, but by the third week everything was back to normal... Checkpoints reduced, social activity back in full swing, the radio is back to playing music instead of the round-the-clock news and poorly written patriotic songs....Except for the swarms of reporters still roaming the country in search of the elusive scoop, I'd say 'yeah' it's normal, alright.

Can I predict them or what? The "55 Most Wanted" cards have turned up on eBay, going for hundreds of dollars. The sellers claim that they are originals "hot off the Pentagon presses". Here's a complete rundown of the playing cards. Warning: After continuous scrolling, the names and faces will all start to look the same.

I've always admired Robert Fisk and even shook his hand once, but I avoided reading his dispatches from Baghdad throughout the war because they were a bit too hysterical for my taste. His tone reminded me of Maude Flanders on the Simpsons, exclaiming "...but what about the children?!"

Now that he's calmed down a bit, he's back to making sense. He argues that there is no way Syria would provide a safe haven for Saddam because it would be like inviting a cruise missile into President Assad's palace. He also wonders why the nuclear warheads in Israel's Negev desert don't fall under WMD classification. Hmmm...

And further to my post yesterday about looting, here's an optimistic article claiming that Iraq's plundered museums may have a better future than one would think. I'm personally hoping Baghdad gets a brand spanking new museum designed by Iraq's very own Zaha Hadid, the world's greatest female architect.

The Spoils of War: This article takes an amusing look at some of the not so obvious winners in the war on Iraq. Among the winners: Anti-war badge manufacturers, mobile phone operators, Jessica Lynch and some British combatants, most notably Colonel Chris Vernon - who has women in Kuwait swooning - and of course... Bloggers!!

What the article missed is the 2 mobile operators in Kuwait who must have raked in the cash with the unprecedented number of text messages flying around since the war started. I should've bought shares... sigh!

Further to my post yesterday about the 18 Kuwaiti POWs reportedly found in Baghdad - still unconfirmed - a group of Kuwaiti volunteers has gone into Iraq on a 2-week mission to try trace the missing. And today's Al-Rai Al-Aam says that a photo of one Kuwaiti prisoner was found amid the rubble of a security building in Amara and was properly identified by his family. He, and the others, could very well be alive.

On the other hand, both this article in the New York Times and this one in Salon take a closer look at the sanitization of TV coverage of the war, most notably for US audiences who, presumably, can't stomach the awful images that are part of the ugly reality of modern warfare. Is violence OK in movies but not OK on the news?

As a homework assignment for American guests on this blog, I'd like you to please read both stories and then tell me how you rate both network and cable news coverage of the war. Do you have access to channels from outside the US and if so, how do you compare them? Did you prefer print media, and by natural extension, their websites? For non-American vistors, you all get CNN I'm sure, so how does your own local coverage differ?

Please keep politics and every channel's perceived (and sometimes obvious) agendas out of the discussion. I'm only interested in the imagery of war shown on your news channels.

How tough is it to be a war correspondent, and what motivates them? I'm no journalist, so I don't think I'll ever have it in me to risk death for a good story. I like a bit of subversion, but even this blog is hardly that. This article written by the Times war correspondent gives a first-hand account of what made him head to Iraq.... and what drove him back to the U.K. before the fighting stopped.

Here's a very interesting take on the out-of-control looting all over Iraq, in every major city. It argues that there is nothing inherently wrong with looting and that the damage that is perceived to be inflicted on Iraq will be minimal...



It must have been written before the looting of the museums.

I thought this cartoon was kind of funny, and guaranteed to offend someone out there... just please don't take it out on me!

Kuwait's been buzzing all afternoon at the news that 18 of our POWs, held in Iraq since 1991, have been found alive in an underground shelter in Baghdad. We're all praying and waiting for confirmation, and waiting for news on the remaining POWs.... Stay tuned for news.

Is the impatience with the lawlessness in Iraq a result of 24 hour TV coverage? We have been watching the conditions deteriorate everyday on TV (remember the impatience after week 1 when the war seemed to have stalled). What if those scenes were not seen? When was law and order restored in other countries after the end of a war? The US administration is saying that this is normal behaviour. Why is it normal behaviour? And when (and where) was there a similar situation? They said that they expect the Iraqi people to greet them with flowers after the end of the Saddam regime, and this happened. But they didn't say beforehand that they expect widespread looting and lawlessness for x amount of days.
There can't be a comparison in this part of the world because this is the first despot to be removed by force, creating an instant power vacuum. Perhaps the looting that happened in Kuwait after the liberation in 1991 isn't the same, and it wasn't newsworthy at the time. Perhaps because the country is small compared to Iraq. Also, the looters were of a different composition (locals + expats + soldiers from liberating armies). And also, because there wasn't 24 hour TV coverage. Just wondering.

Arab Embassies, as shown on alJazeera TV, did not escape the wave of looting. The Jordanian Embassy was attacked, as were others. Most of the senior Arab diplomats left Iraq earlier in the crisis (some before). However, they all kept their doors open throughout, maintaining low levels of staff.
Strange to see that embassies of countries whose people were against the US, against the War, supportive of Iraqis, and in some cases supportive of Saddam, to see them under attack. The looters showed them no mercy.

The conspiracy theories will never stop. The US is accused (by the Arab street, though perhaps not all the streets), of being the main instigators of the looters. They successfully secured the oil fields and oil ministry, but failed to secure anything else.

Many thanks to the gang at QHATE for pointing out the English version of an incredible editorial I read today in Al-Nahar, one of Lebanon's leading newspapers. After reading all the gloom and doom scenarios as imagined by the shell-shocked Arab press, this was kind of uplifting.

I've been following with interest the accusations hurled at CNN after it was revealed that it kept the lid on Saddam's atrocities and threats to its own Baghdad team since they opened their office there in 1991, for fear of endangering their staff. CNN has been accused of unethical behavior, since it's been claiming througout the last decade that it operates freely without Iraqi intervention. Those of us who know that regime firsthand always knew it was a load of B.S.

There have been so many arguments against and in defense of CNN, so I've decided to give you a sampling right here.

Meanwhile... I just discovered that I could've had this entire Blog in Arabic. My Arabic typing skills aren't very good so it may have taken longer to post stuff. And just think... if it was in Arabic I wouldn't have met all of you.... aaawwww!!

While I sort of understood the rage that droves scores of Iraqis to loot and destroy the remnants of Saddam's administration, I am shocked beyond words at the destruction of the National Museum of Antiquities which contains artifacts over 5,000 years old from the Mesopotamian era; Sumerian clay pots, Assyrian marble carvings and a whole lot priceless treasures. The archeological sites in Mosul have also been smashed to bits....I don't understand this at all. What hell must they have lived through to lash out so violently? These historic treasures belong to the Iraqi nation, and should've been a source of national pride.

Well... there goes the much anticipated tourist trade. How sad. I wonder if Saddam's remaining goons have anything to do with this. Anything is possible. Why wasn't there any security at the doors?

"That was Peter Sharpe in Sulaimaniya, one of the 'talented' reporters from our sister network Sky News". Fox News Anchor.
Now Ameri