I don?t intend to write regularly, or at great length about Iraq. I also suspect that only by 2008 would US may debate more earnestly and objectively about this particular misadventure. For now, I just plan to jot down from time to time, my impressions of what has been catching my interest.

I have been following the unfolding ?Who is Salam Pax?? story a tad obsessively. Many may had already read the Guardian news story which finally identified Salam Pax as a 29-year-old Iraqi architect. Incidentally, he is also writing a fortnightly column
in The Guardian.

Peter Mass was one of the Western journalists working in Iraq who was getting requests to look up Salam Pax while he was there. When he got back to the States and got down to actually reading up Salam?s weblog, he realized that Salam Pax has also been working as an interpreter for foreign journalists in Iraq. He thought it funny that both Salam Pax and him have been moving around in the same circles. He read further and it slowly dawned on him that Salam Pax has been his own interpreter in Iraq! ( Story here).

There is some conservative anger directed at Salam largely because he is being equally dismissive of the new American administration as he has been of Saddam?s. I wonder when would people figure out, that from an every day life perspective, food, safety and basic utilities are at least as important as that elusive ?thingy? called ?freedom?.

Salam Pax caught the imagination of people here largely because he is the only Iraqi commoner with a Western mind, writing on the net in an interesting way. The Iraq debate on the weblog space has largely been about Western men arguing with each other about the morality and/or logistics of intervention in Iraq. There are very few genuine Iraqi voices at the fray. Those that are there are so clothed in religiosity and / or fundamentalism of some hue or other that people elsewhere can?t relate to them. Salam Pax represents is the kind of people America wanted to liberate. So his enthusiasm for the intervention gave emotional vindication to the conservatives. Now that he is turning bitter about the occupation, those folks are feeling betrayed.

The other interesting thing to watch has been the constant leaks from the intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. The most palatable explanation of the leaks coming out of UK and USA is that the US and British administrations grossly exaggerated the risks of WMD from Saddam. Guradian has a very good summary of the story so far. Timothy Gorton Ash in an interesting essay said that 'distorted intelligence on Iraq is part of an Orwellian world of fabricated reality'.

The question that conservatives are posing is, do we care? Considering the regular discovery mass graves in Iraq, of children buried alive, of men killed at gunpoints, I don?t think anyone disputes that the world is well rid of Saddam. It does leave a very bitter taste in mouth though, that the US and British administrations deliberately mislead, or at best grossly exaggerated, the threats posed by Saddam?s Iraq. That by itself would not have mattered much if the US government seemed genuinely committed to Iraq. Where I come from, I have very low expectations from politicians. Disinformation or lies by this administration, whatever you may choose to call it, does not shock me greatly any more.

To me, the more important question has always been, would this government make enough of a commitment, to create in Iraq, a just, humane and prosperous society. Most liberals have always felt that this administration does not have the patience and inclination for nation building. And I must admit that the post war management of Iraq is so incredibly badly handled that you have to agree. There is only a very small window that you get when you have so much good will that you can make magic happen. I suspect that window of opportunity is running out in Iraq and the air of empire building rather than nation building has slowly been pervading the airwaves.

Let me wrap up with some good news about the looted treasures from the Iraqi museum.