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August 13, 2003
Salam Pax, Poor Baby
Many of us have enjoyed Salam Pax's Where is Raed Blog. This young, European trained Baghdad architect has been blogging since well before the war. He writes well and has an sardonic sense of humor. For a while he was our only independent source of news from the eye of the storm. When he stopped posting early in the war, we all worried about him and his fate. He has become a hero of the blog world and had his 15 minutes of fame in the major media.
Unfortunately, Salam Pax is also a whiner and a baby!
Hopefully other Iraqi's are more mature, but all Salam can do is complain. The American administration is stupid. The American administration lies. We can't deliver full time electricity so poor Salam has to sleep in the heat. Hint, Salam, many Iraq's are too poor to afford air conditioning anyway. Oh, and many of our troops who liberated your are also sleeping in that heat, in tents rather than your comfortable home. Their sleep is interrupted by incoming mortar rounds, and they are frequently attacked by agents of those who used to oppress you! And yes, I do know about 50C heat - we get it here in Arizona too.
Salam is spoiled. During the war his family had two satellite systems and a generator. Salam was able to get a European education. His father is some sort of mucky-muck. One doubts he is a resident of "Saddam City." Apparently his privileged family has never had to suffer like so many Iraqis.
Salam implies that Americans are mean - they beat and kicked Salam's friend G (which if true needs to be investigated, because that is NOT American policy). Heaven forbid, Americans had the temerity to frisk Salam and search his car! Some of the American guards for the interim government aren't the epitome of politeness - but I'll bet they are better than Saddam's guards ever were!
All this guy can do, now that we have liberated him from the evil despot, is complain. Oh, and he writes up his whines in the anti-American left-wing UK Guardian. They know a fellow traveler when they see one, and hired him after the war.
......
However, reading Salam is still well worth doing, even enjoyable if you ignore his consistent negative attitude. It gives us a viewpoint, however annoying and juvenile, that we otherwise don't get.
And it gives us insight into how decades of totalitarian government have turned him (and apparently many others) into children. Children who expect the government to provide for them. Children who complain if things aren't perfect, now that they won't be fed to a wood-shredder for speaking up. Children who are myopically incapable of understanding the difficulties the occupiers are facing. Children who blame the US for not providing enough electricity, even as Americans are being killed by the terrorists who are sabotaging the electrical system.
We don't demand that Iraqi's be grateful. America doesn't require or need that, although we would appreciate it. And many Iraqi's are grateful and say so frequently to our troops (see the War Zone links on this blog for many troops posting from the area).
We don't demand that Iraqi's be patient or mature or understanding, but that would be appreciated too.
We don't lecture Iraqi's about how much luckier they are than the Germans after WW-II under our occupation, but perhaps Salam should read up on it.
We don't force them to acknowledge the great effort we went through to destroy the regime while killing as few innocents as humanly possible and destroying as little of the country as possible, but perhaps Salam should consider that, instead of his early complaint when one of our surgical strikes (gasp) broke windows nearby.
Salam, please grow up!
Posted by John Moore at August 13, 2003 12:02 PM
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Comments
We've seen this before...the Russians did the same thing after the fall of the Soviet Empire, and the media lapped it up then, too.
Posted by: Toren at August 13, 2003 12:37 PM
"And yes, I do know about 50C heat - we get it here in Arizona too."
Darn right! What is up with all the people crying about how hot it is in Iraq? As an native of the Valley of the Sun, I'm tired of listening to the whining. I used to do landscaping 10 hours a day in that heat, and no one ever sent the Red Cross to look after me! Maybe they can drink their tears if they cry a little more. Oh, dear, it's 100 F! Baghdad had people living in its vicinity for thousands of years before air-conditioning, and my guess is that Saddam didn't change much with his planned economy genius.
As for Salam Pax, I still think that guy is a Ba'athist wanna-be. He was way too well off before the war, and he seems too anxious to see us go now. Sure his friend was "beat up" by soldiers for no good reason... Just because he says nice things about individual Americans does not mean he is a friend of this country.
Posted by: at August 13, 2003 05:05 PM
Looks like I'm your frankalanche....
Posted by: Susie at August 13, 2003 11:56 PM
Another IMAOer. Good read on Raed.
Posted by: Ian at August 14, 2003 11:14 AM
Did you get more than 3 hits on your Instalanche? Then we know where your loyalties are in the current war.
PS. I never liked Salam Pax, even at the peak of his blogging glory. Always suspected him of being a member of a ruling elite (and this does not mean that I ever suspected him of any wrongdoing, just that he had personal reasons to be at least ambivalent about regime change in Iraq. Even if he really disliked Saddam).
Posted by: Katherine at August 14, 2003 02:12 PM
Just escaped Imao before the Borg took it over. Phew...
I must have been tricked into hitting that Liberal but likable world's-angriest-dog site during the Instalanche.
Nice post on Salam. Why do we owe him freedom from rudeness and searches? He's the spoiled scion of an obsequious stooge.
--- BTW --- Resistance Is Futile
Posted by: Trouble at August 15, 2003 07:40 AM
In re electricity problems in Baghdad:
1. If it was so stable before, why did so many well-off citizens have generators?
2. If Iraqis would stop stealing transmission wire (there is a good amount of money to be made in smuggling copper) and crippling pipelines, maybe there would be a better electrical supply - including to run the pumps for water, also badlu affected.
These hopefully will be addressed by the Iraqi police and military, once they start to come on-line, but whining about how it is happening under the coalition rather than, at the least, encouraging the taking of names by the Iraqis themselves, is not a help.
Posted by: John Anderson at August 17, 2003 04:46 AM
how cow, what a stinking pile of crap.
Hint, Salam, many Iraq's are too poor to afford air conditioning anyway.
And heck, without power, what's the point anyway?
And yes, I do know about 50C heat - we get it here in Arizona too.
Right, and how's the summer been without air conditioning? This post is coming from Texas, so I know a thing or two about heat.
Oh, and many of our troops who liberated your are also sleeping in that heat, in tents rather than your comfortable home.
By their own choice. This is no sort of justification, although it does explain why our troops are so on edge.
Apparently his privileged family has never had to suffer like so many Iraqis.
At least, not until they were liberated. And if this is the elite, and their living conditions in the New, Improved Iraq, what about the people who don't have shit. Think they might be complaining a little bit after their liberators destoyed most of their services and have completely inept in restoring them? Or maybe, after 4 months, they've stopped complaining and moved on to something else?
Salam implies that Americans are mean - they beat and kicked Salam's friend G (which if true needs to be investigated, because that is NOT American policy).
I dunno, maybe it's something about spending the day and night in 50C weather that shortens tempers a little bit? And after an investigation cleared wrongdoing in firing tank shells at reporters, I seriously doubt a little roughing up of some ungrateful Iraqi is worth the time to "investigate". There's a war going on, even our vacationing President noticed this.
And I'm sure the investigators are busy still looking for the WMD, or did we just cast that entire line of justification aside after it served its purpose?
Children who are myopically incapable of understanding the difficulties the occupiers are facing.
I'm curious what epithet you would use for children myopically incapable of understanding the frustration of being occupied.
Children who blame the US for not providing enough electricity, even as Americans are being killed by the terrorists who are sabotaging the electrical system.
Wow, this is wild. We pick a fight, and when somebody fights back, it's their fault for everything that goes wrong and we stand blameless before god. Amazing 'logic'.
We don't demand that Iraqi's be grateful.
Yes you are. You are demanding that they be grateful enough for us removing a former business partner gone bad to ignore each and every inconvenience cause by that removal.
And many Iraqi's are grateful and say so frequently to our troops (see the War Zone links on this blog for many troops posting from the area).
This is true, and there is little doubt. However, many Iraqi's (And jihadi's, nice calculation there Cheney) are showing their gratefulness with bullets. And also quite frequently.
Salam, please grow up!
And realize that America is right no matter what happens, and it's your own fault, all of it is your own fault. We don't make mistakes, everyone else is just a whiner.
Posted by: wah at August 20, 2003 08:13 AM
No way, Wah.
America does right, most of the time, much as a surgeon cuts through comparatively living tissue to get to the diseased, purulent tissue below, and clean it out, so that the ORGANISM, overall, can enjoy a higher degree of healthy, vibrant life!
You've chosen to ignore the larger issues, the bigger picture, as evidenced by your post (above).
You want to show America in a bad light, troops in a bad light, Iraq as a bad goal approached through bad efforts by bad leaders leading bad Americans...
But oh! Not YOU... you're just a 'realist', who has America's best interests at heart...
Despite your fault-finding, blaming, nit-picking and distortive obfuscation: look at your response to Americans being killed by saboteurs...
Posted by: Eye Opener at August 21, 2003 12:23 AM
Jeez, wah, you forgot the part about it being all about the oiiilllll. Asswipe.
Posted by: gary at August 21, 2003 12:46 PM
America does right, most of the time, much as a surgeon cuts through comparatively living tissue to get to the diseased, purulent tissue below, and clean it out, so that the ORGANISM, overall, can enjoy a higher degree of healthy, vibrant life!
I agree with that. However, the approach we have taken in Iraq was not the correct course of action, IMHO. What you discuss is not what I have seen taking place over the last few months in Iraq. There are attempts to do so, but it doesn't seem they are fully effective. As certain folks 'whining' illustrates.
You want to show America in a bad light, troops in a bad light, Iraq as a bad goal approached through bad efforts by bad leaders leading bad Americans...
No, I like many people, had friends over there, and I'm was born and raised a Texan, so don't think for a second that I'm not in this discussion for good reason. But I know when I am asking a bit much of those folks, considering the planning that our bad American leaders had for actual victory. "Yea, well, we thought they would all greet us with open arms." is a bullshit excuse. Not even a timetable. And asking no help from anyone. This was so foolish I don't see how you can cast it in a good light unless you keep your eyes closed.
Alienating what is now being shown to be an essential part of this type of operation (i.e. the rest of the world) turned out not to be such a great negotiating strategy.
you're just a 'realist', who has America's best interests at heart.
I hope I can expect the same from you. Why would I not have America's best interests at heart? I might not have your version of 'America's Best Interests', but I certainly have my own. And will defend them with pretty much any force necessary.
look at your response to Americans being killed by saboteurs.
Please, point this out, and I'll be glad to clear up your confusion on this and any other matters.
Jeez, wah, you forgot the part about it being all about the oiiilllll.
Not all, of course, but most certainly part. As the other reasons and justifications fall by the way side, the Oil Ministry is still guarded 24/7. Unlike the U.N. building.
Yes, priorities. I don't believe ours right now are in the right place. And calling people who live in a country we just invaded on what can only now be called 'blurred' justification whiners for the inconvenience caused by that invasion is evidence of such misplacement, IMHO.
Posted by: wah at August 23, 2003 01:45 PM
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at June 26, 2005 09:29 AM
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