The Baghdad Blog

By SALAM PAX (Guardian Books, £7.99)

Reviewed by Adam Ford

The ‘blog’ (or internet diary) of the man who calls himself Salam Pax has become a global phenomenon in the year or so since it started appearing at http://dear_raed.blogspot.com. Whilst most blogs are shared between a handful of friends before fizzling-out after about a week, Pax’s entries have attracted a huge international audience, been the subject of fierce debate, and have now been published in book form. The reason? Pax gives a personal account of Baghdad life that the world’s media cannot compete with.

From his unique vantage point, Pax describes in fascinating and touching detail his first-hand experience of the agonising build-up to war, the invasion itself, and the post-war ‘reconstruction’ attempts by US authorities. In his very first entry, he seemed convinced conflict was inevitable - after reeling-off a list of “emergency provisions”, he tells us that they “will get me through the bombing quite nicely”. Having spent a lot of time in Europe during his life, Pax makes frequent references western culture (he drinks cola, listens to Bowie, and watches American sitcoms). Although this drives-home the rather obvious reality that he is a person ‘just like us’, and partially explains his worldwide appeal, his “sell-out” caused him great anguish as western forces began to colonise his country by other means.

Critical of both the old and new Iraqi regimes, Pax provides a ‘neutral’ antidote to the ‘embedded’ TV reporters, who feared attack and censorship from both sides. And his verdict on the events of the last year? “War sucks big-time. Somehow when the bombs start dropping or you hear the machine guns at the end of your street, you don’t think about your ‘imminent liberation’ anymore”.