December 14, 2003

PEACENIK DIET ADVICE

"Being an Iraqi," writes Omar, "I have a million reasons for supporting the USA and the coalition." And a million reasons for not supporting nations that opposed liberation:

I don’t need you, and even if I did, I won’t ask your help, we’ve had enough of it. Go somewhere else, go to Africa, and relieve your conscience by donating some pennies to the poor, starving people there, and don’t bother how their dictators will use the money, and don’t even bother asking why they are so poor. I will stay here and fight for freedom and democracy with the good and brave Americans (yes..the good and brave.. Eat your hearts), and with all the honest soldiers and people of the coalition.

Eat your hearts, liberation foes. If you have any.

(Via LGF.)

Posted by Tim Blair at December 14, 2003 03:50 AM
Comments

These words by Omar,(With real credit given to Mohammed) should never be forgotten..

I think it should be our duty in the Blog world, to see to it, that every fascist-hugging-chiraq-stooge sees these words..

the BBC has Salmon Pax..

The rest of us have Omar, Ali, and Mohammed..

I nearly cried when I read Mohammeds last few words in what many should consider to be at the very least; the new Iraqi declaration of Independence;he writes, Thanks to the "Brave and couraeous Americans..to the Eurotrash; "Eat your hearts"...

We can't let these words die.. IF this blogosphere is indeed the echo chamber we all know it is, then these words should get louder, and louder, until the chorus drowns out all the snooty grunts of discouragement coming from the BBC.

Arvin

Posted by: Wallace at December 14, 2003 at 05:47 AM

I should point out that there is some small doubt as to the veracity of the Bagdad bloggers, ie allegations that they are propaganda plants by western Iraqis or even the US government.

I don't believe this, I'm 95% sure they're real, but if one or all of them turn out to be fake it makes the pro-war blogosphere look pretty bad and to a certain extent discredits the people who quoted them as gospel.

The people making these allegations are the usual dumbasses, but I'd hate to see those dumbasses vindicated.

The only reason I'm pointing this out is that I'm aware that I really want these guys to be real, and I'm not sure how much that affects my judgment.

Posted by: Amos at December 14, 2003 at 09:52 AM

Little too early for that kind of cynicism no? Amos?

Why manufacture a blogger, when there are millions with similar feelings.?

Now it is true that the BBC has their own whipping boy in Salmon pox, who'm they buttered with a BMW, a flat in London, and international acclaim in Fascist/Peace circles.. So if anything, the anti-war left, has a live-breathing example of a "fabricated" blogger..

But since he is Anti-American, then he is afforded all the legitimacy he needs.

Omar, Ali and Mohammed are tha real deal.. And they really have suffered, and continue to suffer whilst Salmon sips from BBC slippers.

Arvin

Posted by: Wallace at December 14, 2003 at 11:43 AM

Amos is simply advising a degree of prudent caution in accepting these Baghdad Bloggers at 100% face value - and I agree completely.

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe them to be frauds - unlike the left wing idiots who immediately and uncritically adopt that belief without any supporting evidence as a way of coping with the "cognitive dissonance" that reading the truth causes them. And we all know the basic truth that they are portraying.

However, I would not be prepared to stake my life on their authenticity unless and until I see more convincing evidence supporting that belief. It is possible, for instance, that they are returned expatriates who are quite deliberately waging an internet-basd propaganda war in support of the right cause. If so, it does not diminish one iota from the truth or interest of what they are trying to say, but *could* be a dangerous tactic in terms of losing credibility - both for the message and for those who rely on them.

Buggered if I will not keep right on reading them, though - they are the best stuff coming out of Baghdad at the moment!

Posted by: Bob Bunnett at December 14, 2003 at 11:59 AM

Amos,
Tim Blair could be a Chilean housewife planted by the Pinochetistas...or a Australian journalist/car nut. With the internet you have to make your own judgements - or you could believe what you read in the newspaper and see on TV. Bwahahahaha.

Posted by: LB at December 14, 2003 at 12:01 PM

PS: Maybe Fox News or someone should do the BBC/Guardian thing with Omar, Ali, Mohammed or Zeyad. That is, put a face to the name and do a bit of a bio in a "mainstream" media article. Salam was first profiled by the Guardian - it was only after that that I truly started to "know" as opposed to "believe" and "hope" that he was for real.

Posted by: Bob Bunnett at December 14, 2003 at 12:06 PM

Somehow I really doubt these guys want to be pointed out to the Baathists and their identities and locations made public. Many live in Sunni neighborhoods.

Also, formal association with a mainstram media outlet like Fox would degrade their independance and authenticity. Salam has been pretty badly compromised by the Guardian, he's just another paid mouthpeice now, not a private citizen with an honest opinion and a personal stake in Iraq's future.

Posted by: Amos at December 14, 2003 at 12:27 PM

"Tim Blair could be a Chilean housewife planted by the Pinochetistas..."

...as he in fact is and a real looker, too.

Phwoaar! M.I.L.F.!

Posted by: JDB at December 14, 2003 at 12:30 PM

My policy, Amos, is simply to assume people are who they say they are -- until evidence appears to the contrary. I agree that there is a chance some of these Iraqi bloggers are plants; although it seems too clever an idea to emerge from government.

Posted by: tim at December 14, 2003 at 12:33 PM

In a way, how representative they are of other Iraqis is more important than wondering if they're plants. I'm not worried about whether or not they're CIA agents, I do worry whether or not they represent a significant portion of the Iraqi public. It's possible they don't. (I mean, if thousands of Iraqis were to, say, do a march against terrorism in Baghdad, surely it would be covered by CNN, the NYT, etc. Right?)

Posted by: scott h. at December 14, 2003 at 02:42 PM

"My policy, Amos, is simply to assume people are who they say they are -- until evidence appears to the contrary. I agree that there is a chance some of these Iraqi bloggers are plants; although it seems too clever an idea to emerge from government."

Even if it were true that these bloggers aren't real Iraqi's (a rumour probably started in the hope of limiting the enormous damage those blogs are doing to the anti-war cause and to the credibility of the media)the demonstration, estimated at 10,000 strong by Al-Jazeera, consisted of demonstrators who undeniably WERE Iraqi's.

Posted by: Michael at December 14, 2003 at 03:09 PM

Believe your eyes man. If we needed sceptics and equivicators we have a whole world of news papers to choose from. Take a gamble. Be a zealot for the Iraqi cause.

Posted by: papertiger at December 14, 2003 at 07:18 PM