Ain't nostalgia a powerful force?

I picked into Baghdad Burning last evening, just to see if there was anything new. On her sidebar is Dear Raed, whom many might recall as the "blogging powerhouse" of the Iraq war. Yeah he is still about living a comfortable life apparently in the US. But that was not the nostalgia that I was meaning, not directly anyway.

I read the last half dozen or so of his Baghdad entries, Spring 2004.

Tuesday, April 06, 2004 ::
Remember the days when every time you hear an Iraqi talk on TV you had to remember that they are talking with a Mukhabarat minder looking at them noting every word? We are back to that place.

You have to be careful about what you say about al-Sadir. Their hands reach every where and you don't want to be on their shit list. Every body, even the GC is very careful how they formulate their sentences and how they describe Sadir's Militias. They are thugs, thugs thugs. There you have it.

I was listening to a representative of al-sadir on TV saying that the officers at police stations come to offer their help and swear allegiance. Habibi, if they don't they will get killed and their police station "liberated". Have we forgotten the threat al-Sadir issued that Iraqi security forces should not attack their revolutionary brothers, or they will have to suffer the consequences.

Dear US administration,
Welcome to the next level. Please don't act surprised and what sort of timing is that: planning to go on a huge attack on the west of Iraq and provoking a group you know very well (I pray to god you knew) that they are trouble makers.

Oh and before I forget.........Help please.

He also linked in another post to this survey, conducted for the BBC. (pdf)

Take a read through it, just as Raed urged in 2004.

I wonder how the responses to those questions might have changed over the past three years?