He's really f'in something, this Blogger from Baghdad. Describing a more militarized area of the Iraqi capital, where hand grenades sell for $0.25 on the street:

The streets markets look like something out of a William Gibson novel. Heaps of cheap RAM (stolen of course) is being sold beside broken monitors beside falafel stands and weapons are all available. Fights break out justlikethat and knives come out from nowhere, knives just bought 5 minutes ago. There are army sighting thingys, Weird looking things with lenses. And people selling you computer cases who tell you these are electric warmers, never having seen a computer case before. Really truly surreal.
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American civil administration in Iraq is having a shortage of Bright ideas. I keep wondering what happened to the months of "preparation" for a "post-saddam" Iraq. What happened to all these 100-page reports, where is that Dick Cheney report? Why is every single issue treated like they have never thought it would come up?

Salam Pax is an international treasure. I can't stress enough how amazing and unique an opportunity it is for a worldwide audience to read the candid observations of even one actual Iraqi citizen. Gives me the good feeling, even when the picture he paints is less than sunny. That's something I can agree on with most of my conservative netizen bretheren: information is a good thing.

You know, I don't think of myself as a doom and gloom lefty, one who's always complaining and seeing the end of the world in the cards. Though things look bleak at times, and I'll admit I've frankly considered expatriating -- counting on Canada or my Dutch connections -- if we get four more years of Team Bush, I'm always on the lookout for silver linings. Salam Pax, Chris Albritton's Back to Iraq and The Agonist (esp. at its wartime peak of a post about every two minutes) all point to the possiblity of a brighter, equitably global, citizen-centric future. It seems at least possible, if less than certain, that the information revolution and seemingly unstoppable metamorphosis of globalization can make the world a better place for the people who live here.