BBC >> 'Losing our country' - Baghdad blogger

[sabra]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/4896654.stm

'Losing our country' - Baghdad blogger



Baghdad blogger Salam Pax looks back on the last three years

Three years after US forces symbolically toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi capital, 'Baghdad blogger' Salam Pax says things look bleaker than ever for his country.

"One of the tragedies of this ongoing war is that no one knows how many Iraqi lives have been lost.

"And those of us who have survived so far now risk losing our country," he told BBC Newsnight.

...

"If I want to visit the Shia south I feel safer when using my mother's name. I am not very welcome in the Kurdish north because I'm Arab; in fact I need a permit just to go there.

"All these are labels and all I want to be is an Iraqi - but there doesn't seem to be such a thing any more."

[stellanoir]

1. So good to hear he's all right

even though we've irretrievably trashed his country.

He hadn't posted hear in a while so I'm just glad he's alive.

http://justzipit.blogspot.com/

His blogging 3 years ago was amazing. I'll never forget the time when river ( http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com )did a cameo post on his old blog when she was gainfully employed, could wander around Baghdad freely wearing whatever she wanted.

When I think of how much we've lost under * there is no comparison to what we've destroyed that was theirs.

Yikes.