Although his blog has been silent for some time, I went out in search of Salam Pax today just to see where he's been. Well, he's been a lot of places. If there's one success story to come out of the whole Iraq war, it's Salam Pax. Anyway, I found a question and answer segment over at the Guardian. In it, Salam had some interesting things to say about the war and occupation. You can read the whole thing, but some of the items I found the most interesting are here.
When asked if he wanted occupation forces out of Iraq: no not yet please, if this is going to work it will have to be done with the help of whoever is willing to help us and it is going to take a lot of time. so if you don't mind, please wait around a little longer. and maybe invite some friends [UN] it makes the party better.
On marketing the war: oh the motives question. whatever they told us the motives and reasons were, don't trust them. I personally think there is a commitee living under ground controlled by grey aliens who make these decisions :) no seriously, didn't rumsfeld go on TV and say that going with the WMD argument was a political decision, you see it is all about marketing. how are they going to sell the war to their domestic markets. nice big posters of mushroom clouds always work. everything that has happened now in the UK and the US is just making me trust politicians even less. but it is nice that we got rid of Saddam.
On Iraq then and now: one of the problems is that we are very stuck in the now. because people's daily lives have become so difficult the last couple of months they tend to forget that an absolutly amazing thing has happened and that a whole new era has started, we are just going thru the painful process of the birth of the new Iraq. this is what I think. you need to remind most people of that alll the time the Governing Council we have should keep the hope up and keep the focus on the future alawys.
On media reports throughout Iraq: the truth is that the situation in the north and south of Iraq is not like central Iraq. the south is not great but it is mellower and the north is like a different country all together. of course there is much more to be done and it is not being done fast enough but once someone sits and gives you the numbers you just realize how big the effort needed is and just how long it is going to take, I had a chance to meet with the UNDP poeple who were working on the electricity issue and their estimate is 5 years to meet demand because it was short in the first place. the CPA and the Governing Council should try harder than they are now but I don't really think they are doing absolutely nothing. they are just slow and up to their eyeballs in bureaucracy
On Arab media: not Jazeera or Arabiya they feel as if they come with an agenda, I don't really trust them that much and I have seen people's reaction to their presence on the street. their reporters were about to be beaten up a couple of times. I don't want this do sound as a plug for them but they are really very balanced, go check Iraq Today
On obtuse media, and rebuilding responsibilities: that is because it is "Media", they only look at what they like. lots of businesses are open and private banks are back up, there are people who have set up huge generators and are selling electricty in neighborhoods. these things are all done by Iraqis with no help from the coalition forces, we don't need them to do these things we need them to help bring up the bigger structures.
Posted by Ryan at October 1, 2003 12:50 PM
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