My friend Stacy, in the midst of berating me for the ‘naïve’, ‘romantic’ post I made last week commemorating 5 years of the Iraq war, linked me to Last of Iraqis, a fascinating, infuriating blog by a dentist living in Baghdad who writes under the name Mohammed.

He updates it regularly and has been keeping a steady log of the recent upsurge in violence. For those of us frustrated with the simplified war coverage by America’s threadbare media organizations, this sort of raw first person account is crucial.

Read Last of Iraqis here.
For those pent up in blogspot-blockin PRC, try this link.

Here is his latest entry:

At about 2am last night I woke up on the sound of a very fierce confrontation…there was no millisecond without a bullet and it was so so near, then helicopters started to fly over the area but they didn’t shoot so I think they didn’t have a clear target…the confrontation continued for about half an hour and suddenly it stopped and it was silent again and we were able to get back to sleep.

Today was a lot better than the days before…it was a bit silent and we had about 6 hours of electricity and the water was good. AlMaliki said while he was meeting some of the tribes’ Shaikhs in Basrah “The armed groups that fight the government forces are worst than AlQaida, they are acting according to foreign political interests that tries to make the political experiment in Iraq fail….we were talking about AlQaida while there was who are worst than AlQaida among us, in fact they created AlQaida…..We blame ourselves and take responsibility for being easy with them while the armed militias grew stronger…we have been tolerant and endurance for so long and I believe we are responsible…we were supposed to say NO from the beginning and stand for it….We didn’t come to basrah to be against a political current or a specific party because we don’t want to interfere in politics through a military confrontations”!!!! when and how did you become so smart Maloooki? What happened to you? Where is the old Maliki we know? I’m afraid the he have multiple personality disorder…but If he means it then that’s great although there is nothing easier than talking big words…trust can’t be gained like this and that fast.

In Baghdad there have been confrontations in over 13 districts mainly Sadir city and Palestine St. And now Muqtada announced his willing to negotiate with the government but at the same time Muqtada asked his followers to surrender and give up their weapons only to a government that can take the occupation out, but AlMaliki promised that the security forces will continue fighting the outlaw militias in Barah till the end despite the thousands who went out in protests asking Maliki to resign in Sadir city and Kathomiya…While there were protests in Basrah but to support the government and people were saying and carrying sign “Yes, yes to the law”….also I heard some unconfirmed information that the SWAT team in the ministry of anterior have hanged and then burned 5 people in Karbala…and that 45 police officer have joined AlMahdi army.

Joad AlBolani the minister of anterior have announced that the operation is going as planned and that anyone (in the ministry) who will not do his job well…will face justice. And now I have just heard in the TV that the curfew will continue till further notices!! I just want to know how people are supposed to live! I thought that there will be curfew and I bough food supplies but what about those who weren’t ready? How about the poor people who earn their living by their daily work? How can they buy food? What will they do and what will they eat? I’m so sick of sitting home and the fuel for the generator will be finished soon, I feel like a prisoner but I will endure it and I’ll be so glad and happy if in the end there will be something good for the Iraqis, if there will be less killing, kidnappings or explosions, if Iraq and Baghdad is militias-free…for that I’m ready to be a prisoner in a hole for a year, I really do.

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