Groonk's Newsmine 2.0

Unheard of in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, blogging is providing ordinary Iraqis with a voice -- a chance to vent and reflect on the changes reshaping their country.

For the outside world, the generally anonymous internet postings offer raw insider views and insights in which sorrow and joy, hope and despair, fear and defiance coexist as the violence of the insurgency and now sectarian divisions swirl around Iraqis.

"The West should listen to the opinions of the simple Iraqi people. They only hear from analysts and politicians," said Zeyad, who agreed to discuss his blogging only if his family name wasn't revealed for security reasons. "This is a good window into the world."

Zeyad typed his first entry in his Healing Iraq blog in October 2003 about Iraq's new currency, calling it "wonderful and so symbolic" that the distribution of the new dinar coincided with the anniversary of a referendum that re-elected Saddam. He has gone on to chronicle his thoughts on all aspects of life in the new Iraq.

A self-described agnostic born into a Sunni Muslim family, Zeyad reacted angrily in 2003 when the then interior minister announced that people found eating in public during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan would be detained for three days and fined.

"I wanted to kill someone after reading all that," Zeyad wrote. "Free country my ass."

In later postings, he seethed at the growing influence of Muslim clerics, saying it made him fear for the future of freedom in Iraq.

"I want to be able to buy my vodka without having to look left and right. I want to be able to walk with my girlfriend in the street while holding hands together without people glaring at me. Is this TOO MUCH to ask?" he wrote. "Do I have to immigrate and leave my country for wanting to do all that?"

But there were moments of pride and exhilaration, too.

One came when Iraqis voted for an interim legislature in January 2005, their first democratic election in decades.

"Hold your head up high. Remember that you are Iraqi," Zeyad wrote that day.

[...]

While lamenting the violence in Iraq, a blogger who uses the pseudonym The Mesopotamian praised the war that ousted Saddam.

"The blood and sacrifices by the American soldiers and people will never be forgotten," The Mesopotamian wrote. "It was right, it was just and it was ordained by God that a murderer and tyrant should be overthrown."