"To get threat from unknown side whether al Jehad battalion or others!"

January 17, 2007 6:13 PM

“Oh, I took the roofs road" --just one of the fascinating things at a new Iraq blog--Inside Iraq-- daily life in a war zone through the words of Iraqi journalists in McClatchy's Baghdad Bureau as they risk so much each day to survive. These are unedited first hand accounts of their experiences. Their complete names have been withheld for security reasons.
posted by amberglow (9 comments total)

This is great, and it's a fantastic example of something that really fascinates me about humans: The ability to adapt to what surely must be deplorable, terrifying, and life threatening conditions. To echo a commenter from the blog, it is pretty much impossible for me to comment or really sympathize further as I sit here in the U.S., in a city that some people would consider dangerous, that is in fact a cakewalk compared to what people are dealing with day to day in Iraq...

I hope for the best for her and hers, although I must say I fear the worst.
posted by rollbiz at 7:17 PM on January 17, 2007

I never heard of McClatchy until a few months ago, but they've really been in the press lately, so if you are like me and wondering who they are, well McClatchy purchased the ever so cooly named Knight Ridder news services last year. And now you know.
posted by furtive at 8:39 PM on January 17, 2007

They've had really good Iraq coverage--with continual factchecking of all official spin and everything--something really lacking elsewhere.
posted by amberglow at 8:51 PM on January 17, 2007

Excellent link, amberglow - thanks!
posted by madamjujujive at 10:38 PM on January 17, 2007

God damn. I'm still not inured to this. I want to give these people a big hug. To think that my taxes paid for this.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 12:35 AM on January 18, 2007

Weird, I saw the "roofs road" in the Desert Combat mod for BF1942, which came out in mid-2003. It was the "Lost Village" map, which was definitely set in Iraq. I wondered if they had always walked between rooftops like that in Iraq, or if it was a product of the war, because it sure seemed weird.
posted by autodidact at 3:10 AM on January 18, 2007

Humans can get used to anything. It never ceases to amaze me.
posted by quite unimportant at 7:42 AM on January 18, 2007

Is this unique? Unless I’m mistaken the Iraqi mess sets a new standard for fear and misery. The infrastructure is in a shambles. There are three heavily armed factions at one another’s throats, and each one is worse than the other two. Everyone is in the line of fire and subject to random brutality that runs the gamut up to and including torture.

Has the worst US President ever created the worst mess ever, and will he find a way to outdo even that?
posted by Huplescat at 10:50 AM on January 18, 2007

Battle for Haifa Street
posted by homunculus at 5:41 PM on January 25, 2007