White Knuckles

Salam Pax is still on the air for now. He's the only one I've seen posting anything from Baghdad who isn't part of a big "news organization", isn't "embedded", speaks Arabic, and doesn't have a "minder" following him around. He lives there, works there, his family lives and works there. Read his stuff if you want a feel for what is really going on.

His comments seem to be down now; it was fascinating to watch various (I assume) American wingnuts try to convince him that he should be grateful for being bombed back to the stone age, as Saddam Hussein was All His Fault. Near as I can tell, these idiots are kept locked in underground bunkers and get their information only from Rush Limbaugh or other similar random disinformation generators. Then they swap stories to see who can come up with the most outrageous.

There are a few other sources of information on Iraq, but they're all outside the country. Best is probably Christopher Allbritton of Back to Iraq 2.0 . Unofrtunately, I lost a lot of respect for him when I found out that he doesn't speak Arabic, Farsi, or any of the other languages in the region. He's extremely knowledgeable about the area, but it just isn't the same if it all has to be squeezed through a translator.