Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq, by Riverbend

Retrieved from: my library
1558614893, 2005
Suggested by: several reviews, plus the whole blog connection
My Ratings: 10 Merit, 10 Interest, 10 Fun

I should probably put a caveat here: I am against the continuing presence of American troops in Iraq, and have been opposed to the war for over two years. This can't help but color the way I read this book.

And another technicality: my copy of the book has a slightly different cover. The woman on my cover looks slightly older than the one in this photo, who looks (to me) younger and more Caucasian. It is the same photo, but airbrushed. Or something.

This was purportedly written by a young (24ish) Iraqi woman who calls herself Riverbend living in Baghdad before and during the war, and the ongoing upheaval since Bush declared the war "over" in April 2003. She created a blog (on Blogger at first) in August of 2003 to chronicle the frustrations and annoyances of everyday life in a war-zone.

This book is a reprint of her writings from that point up though September 2004. It follows the growing fear and petty goings on in a family that seems surprisingly strong and intact considering everything the country has been through.

Whatever your feelings about the war, or her reliability, I do think it gives a clearer view of what has been happening to the people of Iraq over the past two years. She gives very short shrift to the horrors of Saddam Hussein's rule of the country, and gets increasingly angrier at the sight of American's "occupying force."

I had some qualms about the 'reality' of Riverbend--her English is far better than a lot of native English speakers, which is disconcerting, and her willingness to use electricity for blogging instead of "necessities" strikes me as odd on occasion--but the overall picture of a young person watching her country be, as she puts it on many occasions, "auctioned off" to the highest bidder (usually Haliburton) or bed led by incompetent puppets obvious placed by the U.S.

I have a whole different take on the news. I actually hear the word "insurgent" now, and think, "Insurgent, or freedom fighter? Suicide bomber, or a guy bringing a big sack of rice home from the market?"

Good, good book, although (because?) it made me angry.

[And just for an FYI, I'd kind of like to know what has happened to Riverbend since last month when she posted her last time...]