Political Bloggers wishing to find out what life in Baghdad is like should link into this blog which is run by Mohammed, a 25 year old dentist.
It has only been running since 18 May and to date he has only posted 17 items. This means that everything is up-to-date and can be trawled through with little effort in order to pick out matters of interest.
As a starter, I recommend his video of 15 June, entitled the "Neighborhood of Sorrow" which shows the unhappy road to Adhamyia which is the District of Baghdad which is now hemmed in by a wall.
Don't miss "Going to school in Baghdad" on 2 June. It shows a photo of a dead suicide bomber in his exploded car, with a mother taking her son across the road in front of it on their way to school. The body has not been taken away by the authorities and the couple are ignoring this everyday type of incident.
Mohammed's main think-piece was posted on 20 June and is entitled "The Complete Story of Muqtada and Al Mahdi Army". It is a serious and carefully worked piece on the al-Sadr phenomena.
But everything is not all despair and Mohammed points out that it would be even worse if it wasn't for the fact that so many Shia and Sunni are intermarried and that there are still many shared communities of both sects in Iraq. See his "Restraining Factors for the Sectarian War" on May 26. Unfortunately, todays item "Vengeance of a Madhi-Commander" points in the other direction.
2 comments:
Interesting though he doesnt give much (any?) evidence of the 'under the table deals' - and even the US military acknowledges Sadr doesnt have control over many of the Madhi army - and its pretty certain it has been infiltrated by both criminal gangs and Iranian agents that Sadr is trying to purge from the militia.
I've my own take on Al Sadr and the Madhi army at http://www.duncanmcfarlane.org/GetSadr/
hmm that didnt show up as a link - does this ?
http://www.duncanmcfarlane.org/GetSadr/
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