RIVERBEND
---

I'm hearing a lot of conviction from the pundits and, generally, the press itself these days. Needless to say, maybe, it gets tiresome hearing Christopher Hitchens time and again declaiming some idea or other as "rubbish and superstition," right though he may be (and often is). And what's with Pat Robertson's fatwa decreeing the death of Hugo Chavez? I ask the question, "Are these guys drunks or what?" Among other places, I work in a bar, dear reader may remember. The strident platitudes spewing forth from the commentarians increasingly calls to mind the drunken 2AM political discussions I happen to overhear (and participate in, of course), each party unwavering in his/her conviction until he/she sobers up a bit. So maybe Hitchens and Robertson belong together in the same paragraph after all...

A fresh break from the bluster represented by the above, Baghdad Burning compiles the first couple years of a blog you may have seen. If you have, my next question, "Where is Riverbend?", will ring a little bell in your heart. As of this writing, the Baghdad resident and author of the self-anointed "Girl Blog from Iraq" has not posted since July 15, when she got word of a fellow blogger's detention by the new Iraqi Mukhabarat (the national intelligence service). She's got a great deal to weigh in on otherwise -- the Constitution, the continuing violence, the perpetual appearances of everyone's favorite "puppet" Al-Chalabi on television in his brand-new suits and burnt-sienna ties, et al -- and, frankly, I can't wait to hear it. I also join legions, I'm sure, of other readers in worrying about her safety.

It's not unprecedented for Riverbend to spend this much time away from her computer -- the electricity situation in Baghdad seems to have steadily gotten worse since the 2003 U.S. invasion. Toward the book's end, stretches of a month or more in the stifling Iraqi summer of 2004 are spent avoiding the computer in favor of the air conditioner during the short electricity resurgences. Still, one wonders how long she might stay away, one wishes she'd come back, hopes she's OK.

Riverbend is apparently in her mid-20s, lives with her brother E. and mother and father. Her blog "makes the war real," to use a rather overused expression, for many Americans and others around the world in a way that the lately hamstrung press, so obsessed as they are with the easy ethnic divisions (Sunni/Shia) and bluster-full generalizations, have never managed. Riverbend herself is quick to ridicule a clueless column by mustachioed Thomas Friedman or an NYT story full of inaccuracies. Her impulses are real, sane, she is human. The picture that emerges of the U.S. occupation of Iraq is of a blundering elephant taking on more riders than it can possibly handle, a few of whom are carrying knives and slowly bleeding said elephant to death as it stomps others out who might have had the misfortune of being in the way. Her ridicule of the ineffectual former governing council reminds me in its spirit of my own seeping horror at the realization, during the initial days of the Bush administration, that the man's entire entourage was made up of very familiar faces, the ghosts of his father's and Reagan's and Nixon's administrations -- their sudden reappearance not so novel, I knew then, but surreal and groan-worthy all the same.

But nothing about the book can be honestly rendered so simply. Riverbend's blog begins with the inception of the occupation, her tech job gone, social life ruined with the "liberation" of squads of men and religious militias free to put pressure on uncovered women on the street, the attendant fear for the future of her country, the day-to-day little worries. While her political analyses are lucid and compelling, their energy at times electrifying, the best writing in the book and blog happens when River leaves off with these and narrates her family's preparations for Ramadan, for instance, the big and little Eids, the view from the rooftop after a large explosion, River and her brother E. having rushed up to see where the smoke is coming from, can you tell which area, do we have any friends there, any relatives? It's an honest narrative, attractive for simply that reason. Invading a country, contrary to the contemporary bluster, can in the near term never be about enshrining personal freedom and democracy. Many lives are ruined in the process; it's high time people stopped ignoring this fact, as our press and government seem more than willing to do.

Near the end of Baghdad Burning, the beginning of the summer of 2004 is particularly momentous -- the parading of charred bodies of foreign contractors on a bridge in Fallujah, followed by the horror of the Abu Ghraib pictures. Riverbend finds herself full of rage at not only the acts themselves and said acts' perps but at the seemingly incredulous American reaction. Riverbend asks questions. Lest you forget the horror of our country's actions (maybe you don't need reminding, but...), I'll let her pump you up and fade out, here. I'll let her ask you herself...

People are seething with anger -- the pictures of Abu Ghraib and the Brits in Basrah are everywhere. Every newspaper you pick up in Baghdad has pictures of some American or British atrocity or another. It's like a nightmare...

There was a time when people here felt sorry for the troops. No matter what one's attitude was towards the troops, regardless of their nationality. We would see them suffering the Iraqi sun, obviously wishing they were somewhere else and somehow, that vulnerability made them seem less monstrous and more human. That time has passed. People look at troops now and see the pictures of Abu Ghraib...and we burn with shame and anger and frustration at not being able to do something. Now that the world knows that the torture has been going on since the very beginning, do people finally understand what happened in Fallujah?...

PAST WING & FLY:
*TOTH
*WHALE
*X
*Z
*SMOKE
*NEXIUM
*EUREKA
*MENO
*HAMMOND
*PILSEN
*CANADA
*DAYTONA
*WESTERN AVENUE
*ZOO

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