I am always on the lookout for information on the Iraq War that hasn’t been filtered, massaged and censored to death, so when I came across a blog from a 64 year old American Grandma who is blogging directly from the war zone, I was intrigued. I read through volumes of her fascinating reporting to find out what is really going on and would like to pass this on to our readers. It is unpolished, raw reporting from a real person with boots on the ground. You will be surprised at what she has to say and what the Iraqi’s have to say who are living this hellish nightmare every day.

Jane Stillwater, a 64 year old grandmother from California is not your typical war correspondent, but she is a feisty, persistent, adventurous, self-described “flower child” of the 60s who is used to breaking out of conformity. Being disgusted with the low quality of news coming from Bagdad, she became inspired and was determined to blog from inside the war zone. So, after months of persistence and a Texas sponsor, she finally made it to the Green Zone and has been reporting since March of this year.

In reading through her many posts, I have come across jewels of information that I feel is interesting, informative and sometimes even entertaining. What I have done is captured some of the more revealing portions of her posts that I feel really paint a picture of what is truly going on in Iraq. This kind of information is extremely valuable due to it coming from a person who is trying to get the story straight without media, or government censorship. These slices of war-time Iraq may be the only chance for you to experience what it is really like “over there” from a perspective of reporting as of this month. If you want to read her entire blog entries, please go to this link. But for a shortened version of the latest reporting, here it is:

Last night I called a cell phone number of an Iraqi friend. “I can’t talk now,” he said. “I’m walking to my home. I can’t be heard speaking English on the street.” There you have it, summed up in a few words. On the streets of Baghdad, speaking English can get you killed. Hell, on the streets of Baghdad, ANYTHING can get you killed.

And, I thought McCain said that it was safe to walk the streets of Bagdad?

The insurgents around here are all now called “Al Qaeda” so that Americans will obediently start thinking that our troops are now fighting the dudes who allegedly blew up the World Trade Center. However, this spin may backfire on its spinners because on September 11, 2001 there were NO Al Qaeda in Iraq and currently, thanks to the miracle of re-naming and the leadership skills of George W. Bush, there are now hundreds of thousands of Al Qaeda in post-invasion Iraq. Someone has indeed blundered and it wasn’t our troops.

Funny, I thought we invaded Iraq to kill the 9/11 terrorists, not spawn more.

The following is from a discussion that Stillwater had with two Iraqi Parliamentarians who could speak English. One was an attorney, and the other a professor. This is what they had to say:

“The main thing we want right now is security,” said the lawyer. “Right now there are no jobs, our schools are weak and there are military in the roads. Our lives have been stopped. We want to be able to safely walk on our streets without the presence everywhere of tanks and the military — like any other community would want.”

“At first, when the Americans first arrived,” said the professor, “we had hope. Now there are no hopes.” She couldn’t understand why the Americans invaded. “For money and power?” In the beginning the two parliamentarians had been against Saddam. “But now we prefer him to America, who caused this terror. They are the invisible hand behind the terrorists. They pushed the terrorists to do it. However, now we cannot tell the Americans to go away until they help to subdue the Al Qaeda, terrorists and Ba’athists that the Americans caused as a reaction from the occupation.”

“I want the American people to know the truth,” said the lawyer. “You cannot believe what the media says. Most of them lie. There have been many more than 3,200 soldiers killed here – because they do not count the…” Her English faltered here and she stretched to try to find the right words. “…mercenaries.” Hummm. “In Basra, Americans released criminals from the jails.” “Over a million Iraqis have been killed. And there are three million refugees.”

“We want the government to be strong, not weak,” said the professor. “The presence of U.S. soldiers here weakens the government. Maliki is okay – but he hasn’t any real authority.” Then a debate ensued between the two parliamentarians regarding whether U.S. troops should stay and help the government or get out now. “All the problems come from them. Maliki doesn’t have any real authority.” Both agreed on this point. “Americans put their noses into everything here. They claim this is a democracy but it is not.”

“Americans in America can’t understand what has happened here because they do not understand the culture of our community. We have endured four wars and they have hurt the country. All of them were caused by the Americans. Iraqis are cleaver and understand what is going on. They know who is responsible. Bush needs to stop being crazy.”

More from the Iraqis:

Then I went to a press conference held by the Ministry of Energy and during the Q&A, an Iraqi reporter stated that the people of Baghdad needed more electricity than just six hours worth a day. The Ministry’s rep replied that so far, “40 of our workers have been killed, 300 have been kidnapped and 300 have been injured. Work has been abandoned because of the threats. In Baghdad it is very difficult. We are trying to establish power but our towers are being destroyed. We are working under very difficult conditions.” Apparently the insurgents are targeting power stations and power lines in an effort to discredit the Multi-National Forces who are guarding them.

Then my friend Ilene e-mailed me an article that said, “Disillusioned with their ‘liberators,’ many Iraqis believe that the withdrawal of the foreign troops the only solution to their trauma. ‘The Americans must leave, they are responsible for the situation today,’ said Mohamed Ali, an employee of the Palestine Hotel in central Baghdad. ‘If they go, the situation will become stable in one or two months.’”

Fox News take on the war:

My new bunkmate then argued that the troops DO need to stay, citing a point of view that she had just heard on Fox News. “We can’t leave here now because we have too much stuff.” Oh. THAT’S why Bush and them are staying here? Because their closets are too full and they can’t fit all their junk in a suitcase? The Paris Hilton rationale? Yeah right.

Who knows what should happen next here in Iraq? Who knows what the right thing to do really is. The situation here is truly complex. However, if our troops do decide to leave, maybe they can hire Paris Hilton to teach them how to pack!

Stillwater’s take on the war:

What do I propose as a solution? Edmund Burke said it best. “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” There are six billion people alive on the planet today. Of all those people, surely a majority of us are not in the killing business. It’s time for the rest of us to put our “boots on the ground”. Enough! Enough killing. Enough war. It’s time for the human race to evolve.

My question is, why hasn’t the human race evolved? What has kept us from invoking peace instead of declaring war? We really need to figure this out. I find it immoral and unconscionable that we go right on killing people for an agenda. We, as a civilized society should be shouting from the rooftops that “we are sick and tired of the killing and we’re just not going to take it anymore”. And, until we do that, I will keep on posting articles that reveal the true agendas that keep perpetuating this inhuman and cruel insanity.