HW 26 "eager to read"

While reading the foreword by Soueif it made me really eager to read about Riverbend’s blog. Soueif really focused on telling us how the book was written and how Riverbend really explains and lets us into her life. Soueif states that “Baghdad Burning brings us as close to the war in Iraq as it is possible to be (page 1 foreword)”. From what I understand after reading Soueif is that Riverbend writes blogs almost weekly on her everyday life, which isn’t in fact so ordinary. She talks about how Riverbend sits on the rooftops with her brother “z” and watches Baghdad burn. Soueif lets us know before reading the book Riverbends feelings on Ahmad Chalabi, Riverbend states “I stare at him when he gives his speeches on television and cringe with the thought that someone out there could actually have thought he was representative of any faction of Iraqi society”( pageix). In the introduction written by James Ridgeway he focuses on what and why this war is actually going on. He talks about the background of Riverbend’s culture. He then gets in conversation about the Gulf War and how that leads into the 2003 war. Some of the things he talks about shock me because I never really knew much about the war. I will be honest I don’t keep up with the news and what is going on in the war even though I know it is important to do. One thing that was most surprising that I read was when he stated that ‘The Bush administration appears to have determined to go to war against Saddam as a primary foreign policy goal well before 9/11. Maybe I am just being naïve but I always thought we went to war because of what happened during the tragic events of 9/11. I think my impressions of the War are more like the way Soueif writes about it. I didn’t know all the details and problems that lead us to war like Ridgeway writes about. All I really knew is that we invaded Iraq and many were killed. All I knew and still know today is that I think it needs to end, I think it is time to get our troops home.