Polluting The Blogosphere

Hello world! This is my first posting on this blog and so some introductory comments... Some of you may be familiar with my writing on my own blog, the Disillusioned kid, which I've maintained for a while. Probably most of you aren't, but you can expect a combination of incisive analysis (shamelessly stolen from elsewhere) and confused ravings. You'll love it. Perhaps.

To kick things of I'd like to recommend that you check out a post on yet another blog, this time by Juan Cole. Cole is a Professor of History at the University of Michigan, specialising in the Middle East and Iraq. His postings on the aptly-titled Informed Comment are a must read for anyone interested in understanding what's going on in Iraq. While I've not been keeping up well with my blogging recently, I discovered a recent, particularly brilliant post - via the Justice Not Vengeance mailing list - to which I would like to draw your attention. In a post entitled, "If America were Iraq, What would it be Like?" Cole demonstrates just how dire things in Iraq have become after a year and a half of occupation. I considered extracting from it here, but you really need to read it in its entirety. Right now.