Assumptions

I haven't written here for awhile. I've been away celebrating my birthday. But here I am back at work.

And what's the first thing that I do? I check the blogs I like to read. I think I've shared this blog before, but it really is worth reading. It's called Baghdad Burning and is found at http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ .

I share the recent posting on the inundation of American media into Iraqi households with my co-worker. It is a witty piece of writing and sharp. The writer is someone I enjoy reading because she is thoughtful and smart. She obviously puts a lot into her writing. My co-workers response was that she must not be the "average" Iraqi and must be a reporter or something. That's not my sense, although I could be wrong.

But the more I pondered this statement, I realized that Americans know very little about what "average" Iraqis are really like. And I'm pretty sure that our ideas of who Iraqis are may tend to be racist and off. It seems horrifying to me that in the history of our recent wars, we tend to fight against those who we don't really understand and can easily distort into a caricature of the demonic.

It saddens me and I wish that people in America were smarter than that.