by Peter Ryan

Surges of war-induced popular interest have forced book publishers to cram the shelves with new titles about Iraq, seemingly green-lighting every new manuscript that they can get their hands on. A case in point, perhaps, is one of the most bizarre books in this recent hailstorm of titles: Salam Pax: the Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi. For those of you willing to risk 14 bucks on an entirely new genre of non-fiction, Salam Pax is worth a read (though you can also find him online for free).

The title itself is perhaps misleading. First of all, this book is not really a "diary" in the traditional sense of the word. It is, in fact, the republication of a web blog, which is like a journal except that the entries are meant to be posted online. So, unlike a diary, a blog is meant to be read by an audience of strangers and makes use of the internet to post links to other websites and respond to reader's e-mails.

Salam's "diary" entries, in fact, are mostly responses to e-mails he receives from Westerners curious about the situation in Iraq and critiques of mainstream newspaper articles he reads containing erroneous or misleading statements. Only occasionally does Salam delve into the realm of the deeply personal, discussing deaths in the family and the build up of fear in the days before the U.S. led invasion. A diary, by its very nature, is intensely personal and intimate. A blog, on the other hand, by its very nature is almost a form of exhibitionism-the internet equivalent, perhaps, of "reality TV."

Secondly, and on a more positive note, it should be said that Salam Pax is far from being an "ordinary Iraqi" as the title of his book claims. His blog would not be so interesting if he were anything less than an extraordinary Iraqi. He is, in fact, a highly educated, articulate, "Westernized" (for lack of a better term) and crassly humorous member of Iraqi society, which makes his perspective a visceral one. Between painting a picture of Iraq's preparations for the U.S. bombing campaign, Salam rants about his love for David Bowie and Bjork. When the U.S. army begins dumping propaganda pamphlets out of airplanes, he begins to speculate about how much money such a document would earn him on Ebay. Best of all, Salam Pax is funny, using his dark and callous sense of humor to tear at Saddam's regime, the U.S. war machine and even the Western "human shields" who have come to Baghdad in the hopes of averting the war and whom Salam paints as hopelessly na�ve, much to the consternation of many of his readers.

"Nobody minded an un-democratic Iraq for a very long time," Salam chides, "Now people have decided to bomb us to democracy? Well, thank you! How thoughtful." He quickly adds some advice for his readers: "Support democracy in Iraq not by bombing us to hell and then trying to build it up again (well, that is going to happen anyway), not by sending human shields (let's be real, the war is going to happen and Saddam will use you as hostages), but by keeping an eye on what will happen after the war."

Salam, a highly "Westernized" Iraqi, at one point acknowledges the impact that American culture has had on him and laments the confusing aftermath of its affects. "The mess I'm in really bothers me," he says in an entry addressed to his friend Raed, "With all my talk of anti-Americanism (is that even a word?) I still make references to their culture, their music and their movies�. This is not the dialogue of equals we used to talk about. I keep making references to their-everything-because I am so swallowed up by it. Look, I have been sending you e-mails in English for the whole last year! How sad is that?" It's not that Salam dislikes Western culture-on the contrary, he can't get enough of it. But it's as if, deep down, this puts him somehow on a less than equal footing. After all, he knows a great deal about American society and culture, while the Americans he interacts with online seem to know very little about Iraq. There is, he laments, no "dialogue of equals."

Salam Pax's weblog picks up speed on page 125 when the war, and the U.S. bombing campaign, begins to creep over Iraq. Salam's strategy to deal psychologically with the war from his house in Iraq is similar to the tactics I employed from my home in Southern California: "I am trying to ignore 24-hour, non-stop TV bombardment," Salam confides, "News just ups the level of my paranoia. I'm living in my headphones or watching silly videos. Ice Age has become a house favorite."

But the harsh realities of war, in Salam's case, cannot be avoided. "To see your city destroyed before your eyes," he says after the bombing, "is not a pain that can be described and put into words. It turns you sour (or is that bitter?). It makes something snap in you and you lose whatever hope you have."

"War sucks big time," he adds, "Don't let yourself ever be talked into having one waged in the name of your freedom. Somehow, when the bombs start dropping or you hear the sound of machine-guns at the end of your street, you don't think about your 'imminent liberation' any more."

Salam Pax is not for everyone. Some may find the format confusing, Salam's entries are often in response to e-mails which we never get to read and contain links to web pages which in the published version are turned into footnotes. Some more politically minded readers may be impatient with Salam's journals, which occasionally spend as much time addressing his inconsistent internet access and his musical tastes as they do the war (Salam's blog, I'm guessing, wasn't even originally intended as a "political" journal). And the truly internet savvy will wonder why they should shell out 13 bucks for a paperback of a journal meant to be read online. Others, naively in search of the "authentic Iraq," may be disappointed by Salam's apparent "Western values": his fearless speech, his irreverence, his cultural references and even his slang. For everyone else, Salam's journal presents a great opportunity for Western audiences to rediscover Iraq through a unqiue lens. It might also serve as a tool to help us prepare for the perhaps still not impossible "dialogue of equals" for which Salam so eagerly yearns.

Buy Salam Pax now from Amazon

You can also Visit Salam's website

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This article is a Middle East Window exclusive. It cannot be republished without the prior written consent of the editor. For information about republication rights, please contact: peter@middleeastfellowship.org