A Critique of Riverbend
I often link to Riverbend, a Suni-Iraqi female blogger, to get an Iraqi perspective on what is going on there. Jeff Weintraub (via Sullivan) points out that one should keep in mind that Riverbend is coming from the perspective of a Suni member the professional class. Here's Mr. Weintraub writing to Mr. Sullivan:
On the other hand, what Riverbend says always has to be taken with a grain of salt, too, since she invariably represents a totally one-sided perspective--that of the formerly dominant Sunni Arab minority--in a society polarized by ethnic & sectarian conflicts and, increasingly, by sectarian murders and other atrocities in the Arab part of Iraq. Riverbend simply cannot comprehend why any other Iraqis, including great majorities of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds (who add up to some 80% of the Iraqi population), might see the situation differently from the way she does, and might find it harder to think of pre-2003 Iraq as the good old days. So she either pretends their perspectives don't exist or dismisses them as special interests, US dupes, Iranian agents, and so on.
In Riverbend's case, perhaps, we can excuse all this. As I said, she's had to live with the situation, and we haven't. But it also has to be kept in mind that she presents a special, one-sided, and in some ways quite misleading perspective--that of the Sunni Arab minority, and especially its urban professional classes.
This comes through in everything she says, including the post from which you quoted. Riverbend remembers that, before 2003, it didn't matter whether you were Sunni or Shiite in Arab Iraq. But one reason she remembers it that way is that she was a member of a privileged minority. (Similarly, many whites in the US south sincerely believed that race relations were basically OK until things got stirred up by "outside agitators".) It's very clear that very, very large numbers of Iraqi Shiites saw things very differently. (Let's just ignore the way Kurds might have seen the situation--since Riverbend generally ignores that, too.)
Comments
Iraqi Sunnis Battle To Defend Shiites (Aug 2005)
Rising up against insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, Iraqi Sunni Muslims in Ramadi fought with grenade launchers and automatic weapons Saturday to defend their Shiite neighbors against a bid to drive them from the western city, Sunni leaders and Shiite residents said.
[...] A grateful Shiite resident of Ramadi said he was not surprised at the threats by Zarqawi's followers or the defiance of them. "So many ties of friendship, marriage and compassion" bind Shiites and Sunnis in Ramadi, said Ali Hussein Lifta, a 50-year-old air-conditioning repairman and a resident of Tameem.
And then there is Kadhim al-Jabouri, who regrets his part in bringing down Saddam's statue. "The Americans are worse than the dictatorship. Every day is worse than the previous day.” -- that from a guy who went to Abu Ghraib when it was run by Saddam.