Riverbend Finally Left Iraq!

Though I assume the news didn't make any of the supposedly responsible members of the media, here or abroad, about three months ago the unfortunate country of Iraq suffered a big loss of one of its national treasures, though that deprivation will almost certainly not last forever. Along with her family, Riverbend, the exemplary author of the weblog Baghdad Burning, spoke sayonara. But they didn't go far. Just across the border into Syria, where they now seem to be living precariously on their savings and a shaky visa situation.

I have been interested in this mysterious lady for a long time, and each time that I read of one of the frequent car bombings in Baghdad markets, with dozens of victims, I deeply hoped that she wasn't among them, and I thought it might be a good idea if she was somewhere else after all. Yet I also had nothing but admiration for the determination of herself and her family to stick out the highly desperate conditions for as long as they did.

For trying to get a good idea of what's really going on in Iraq I've always read her weblog and that of Juan Cole's Informed Comment first and then going on from there. I don't see how that system can be improved.

I've known for a while that they had decided to leave, and I wondered if they would try for the U.S., on the strength of the fact that I'm not the only one who has long admired her work, and she has won a number of awards. So I guessed that should the U.S. be her choice, help would be close at hand. But I wasn't a bit surprised that she and her folks chose an Islamic country close by instead.

Though she is incredibly clever about never dropping anything to give an idea of her background or even things like some part of her real name, it's hard not to think that at some point Riverbend spent a lot of time in the U.S. She is clearly too familiar with many things American, including the idiom. But things must've changed drastically when Bush invaded and displaced Saddam Hussein. Now she appears to have no use at all for Americans, even as she communicates with us in our language. American and not British or any other type of English.

Riverbend is so notable that she has inspired a group of rightists to set up anti-Riverbend weblogs. I haven't checked to see if they're still around, but they were going pretty strong a couple of years ago. Of course they never even came close to having any effect, but they fired their limp shots.

They charged her with being a Baathist and a Saddam lover. I don't know about any of that. I just know that by expertly reporting her personal experience she has confirmed the obvious. Things were better in Iraq in numerous ways compared to what they are now, and therefore the Bush invasion and subsequent occupation have been a huge disaster, though if adding to the boatloads of hurt that Saddam had already heaped on the Iraqis and getting in position to grab their oil were the goals, it's been a success.

So now Riverbend is an exile, an expatriate. I wonder what she will do now. Sometimes things can be seen better if they're viewed from the outside. But we can bet that her story isn't over yet. It has other interesting chapters to come, plus the ones that will tell us where she came from ...plus her picture.