Does anybody know the legitimacy of some of the Iraqi blogs?

[T Roosevelt]

There's a bunch out there, and I've seen a number referenced that are either all good news (pointed to by my pro-war friends) and mostly bad news. Here are two:

http://healingiraq.blogspot.com (links to the CPA website...hmmm)
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com (anybody that links to lucianne and lgf is suspect)

[Igel]

1. Dunno about those two.

I'd be more concerned about objectivity. I'm not sure what "legitimate" means--believed? accurate? actually run by an Iraqi?

Many blogs widely cited here serve to reinforce the beliefs of those doing the citing. Same on the other side. One serious problem is forgetting that people (even Iraqis) have agendas. Another is to forget that conditions aren't uniform, even within a city. I lived in West LA, a decent neighborhood; 3 miles in another direction was an area that makes Beverly Hills look like a slum, and 6 in another direction was pretty much a slum. By some thinking, that's just wasn't possible.

There's no requirement for a blogger to not have an agenda. Take those into account. Somebody advocating for the insurgency, knowing that there's no way to disconfirm his story, is unlikely to be greatly fettered by the truth. An Army site, for the same reason, is also not to be taken at face value.

Find an objective one (to which I say, Good luck!). Or read both kinds and realize the truth is likely to be in between. Somewhere. Probably.

"Skepticism serves our interests best."

[T Roosevelt]

2. My concern was backing/sponsorship by CPA/US interests

and I understand that objectivity is difficult to find, particularly in blogs.

So yes, the truth is somewhere in between...

[Igel]

3. Yeah, that's a problem. But sponsorship by US interests

merely implies an agenda.

Pick a few with competing agendas and make some guesses. It's bound to be better than somebody who just reads blogs with one agenda.

(Back in the '70s and '80s I read US papers, and Izvestiya and other Soviet papers. Sometimes it was hard to figure out if I was reading papers from the same planet.).