HW 25: Responding to Riverbend

In Bagdad Burning, Riverbend writes her own accounts of what has happened in Iraq over the last few years. Soueif believes that this is powerful work, and never before seen accounts are described in Riverbend’s writings. Most mainstream media concentrated largely on the war, and what was being done to stop terrorists. However, Riverbend’s blog is about something more, something that we have never witnessed. In Ridgeway’s introduction, he describes Riverbend’s blog. Not about shootings and conspiracy theories, but about everyday tasks that we take for granted. “…rounding up enough friendly armed men to take the kids to the store to buy crayons (Ridgeway xi).” Never have I heard this report. The only news coming from CNN or Fox News about Iraq has been about the war and the larger perfect. We forget that we are killing and punishing innocent human beings. The introduction is about the history of Iraq and how oil has supported the country for many years. Britain invaded, took over, and the United States wasn’t in favor. This has led the United States to years of battling with the Middle East over the oil problem. Through the 2003 war in Iraq, with all the children dying and others crying, we forget that we made humans suffer. They weren’t terrorists, Muslims, Shia; they were people. Prior to the reading, I forgot about this tragic fact. I forgot about the actual people, and only thought about the country. I thought about oil, Saddam Hussein, and conspiracy theories. Bagdad Burning makes myself and everyone who reads it that human beings are affected by the war, and that is what’s most important.