In a recent post on Last of Iraqis, one of the few Iraqi English-language blogs still up and running, blogger Mohammed offers a new perspective on what the U.S. has called success in Iraq. After a November 25th bombing near the ministry of health left his good friend’s mom in critical condition, the 25-year-old dentist said he suspected the relative calm of the last couple of weeks didn’t mean the insurgents were gone—just that they were pausing to regroup. He wrote, “It seems that the terrorists from all sides were just planning what to do next, they were planning how to overcome the current changes.”
With another deadly blast hitting Baghdad today, Mohammed’s view of recent developments seems far more accurate than the mainstream American media’s. The violence has always been cyclical, and there’s no reason to believe things are any different this time around.
Throughout the war, undiluted blogging from Iraqis on the ground has kept American news outlets in check. The BBC has done a roundup of these posts from civilians inside the country every couple of months since January of this year.
—Andre Sternberg
