360 words
Bill Bumgarner gives an overview of Iraq related blogging. I bumped into the Baghdad Burning blog as well as it seems to be spreading across the internet quickly. A lot of interesting inside views in there. Or are there? Many of the points seem to match the misgivings people had regarding the occupation of Iraq to begin with. So while I don't want to say this is a hoax (it would be a very elaborate and well-written one in that case), I don't know it's real either. Similarly, I don't know most other things I learn from the internet are real. But as this topic is particularly sensitive, being wrong here would be more of a problem than being wrong about some inessential computer thing, say.
I disagree with what Bill says about the money, btw. The U.S. and their fellow invaders went to Iraq without any invitation or reason and then occupied the country. Don't the Iraqi people have a right to get their country back intact? What would you do if, people smashed your door and simply put in a new one, charging zillions for that and keeping the key afterwards. I'd call the police and not pay.
The amounts of money that seem to be going to U.S. corporations are huge. They seem to have the potential to cripple a country financially that should be well-off due to their natural resources alone. People will be upset by this.
It remotely reminds me of Germany after the first World War. While this war was actually Germany's fault and no-one disputed them to be fought back, the Versailles Treaty obliged the country to pay massive reparations. Just the fact that there was this huge debt to be paid off, made people feel unhappy about their new republic. An unhappiness that is considered to have helped Hitler to come into power.
While the plans for rebuilding Iraq at the pleasure of corporate America may be unfair financially, they could have a greater impact morally by humiliating and alienating people to a degree that they don't want embrace the opportunity (should it come up) to become a democratic country.