Riverbend is now a refugee in Damascus

One of Iraq's most articulate and durable blogging voices is now posting from Syria. Those of us who have been following her posts have a human contact with the headlines that most readers seem not to have or want.

Here is the link. Josh Landis copied the post in toto and is attracting a few good comments.

I have given up trying to change minds about the war. Besides, it appears that events are set in motion at higher levels of power that no longer need the approval of ordinary people to take whatever steps they choose.

Bombs dropping on Iran sometime between now and the end of next year will come as no surprise to those who have been paying attention. Thanks to an amazing depth of indiffernce on the part of most Americans it won't matter much.

Michael Yon seems downright pissed that news from Iraq is not being accurately reported. He says the situation there has improved noticeably over the last few month and the details are not being reported. I have a high regard for his journalism so I accept what he says at face value.

...America seems to be under a glass dome which allows few hard facts from the field to filter in unless they are attached to a string of false assumptions. Considering that my trip home coincided with General Petraeus’ testimony before the US Congress, when media interest in the war was (I’m told) unusually concentrated, it’s a wonder my eardrums didn’t burst on the trip back to Iraq. In places like Singapore, Indonesia, and Britain people hardly seemed to notice that success is being achieved in Iraq, while in the United States, Britney was competing for airtime with O.J. in one of the saddest sideshows on Earth.

Whether or not events in Iraq are better or worse, it is clear that his analysis of America is exactly right. I rarely speak with anyone who can talk rationally, if at all, about the war. Domestic issues are more important to ordinary people. Discussions of foreign policy are akin to sports talk or celebrity gossip. Something to make conversation until something important comes up...like what's on sale at Walmart, who's moving in down the street or where can you find the cheapest gas.