[Chewbacca]

Originally posted by promethius9594: OH COME ON!!! are you too prideful to realize youve been had?!?!?!

No, you have made a less than compelling case that this is a fake and instead of giving something substantial yourself you make demand for us to do the same.
I think you are discrediting this blog becasue it is critical of the occupation and rather than address the issue provoked by the writing it is more convient to dodge the issue by claiming fraud.

HOWEVER, she notes she is from a software company in bagdad. I figured, "heck, company has got to be online." being a computer scientist, i know a bit about programming. a google search for "software + engineering + bagdad" produced a bunch of firms offering jobs to go to bagdad (read: american companies) and ONE company with a location in bagdad. so, i looked at the webpage. conveniently enough "riverbend is anonymous, so i couldnt look up any employee records or software products produced by her. that would be what is called imperical evidence: it is verifiable through FACT which can be observed, not just by claim. So i think to myself, well, she specialized in databases, so this company i have found must have some location on its site for databases. I went back and i searched "software + engineering + database + bagdad." this turned up a whole result of... nothing but foreign companies offering people jobs to go to bagdad for nation building. READ: the division she claims to work for in her company does not exist in bagdad.

Has it occured to you that this company may not exist anymore? Nothing compelling here. It actuallyl wouldn't suprise me that even a tech company in a nation that has been invaded and occupied for the last year would not make an effort to create a web-presence. (especially after all the equipment was looted).

Now, if that weren't enough, i know a little bit about the iraqi culture... being in the military and all we learn a bit about the cultures we have to fight. She claims to make more money than two male counterparts. that would NEVER be true in iraq. in saudi arabia that wouldnt even be true, and iraq is not even that progressive. If women are EVER highered in Iraq it is for much less money than their male counterparts make. assuming she makes more than her male counterparts, one could assume she is the project head out of the three. this is likewise impossible in iraq, as women there are NEVER placed in authority over men.

Actually in Iraq under the former secular regime, woman and men were veiwed as equals. It is the fundimentalist Islamist's that would enforce inequality between the sexes. What ever the military told you about woman's rights in Iraq under the previous regime was either a lie or not the entire truth.

This character, riverbend, does a good job dodging the obvious accusations that she is a phony, but she just doesnt know enough about the culture nor provide enough prove to be imperically verifiable as any sort of real opinion from iraq.

Evidently you have not read the blog very much. Riverbend has provided ample information about herself, Iraqi culture and her opinion of the the war and occupation.

I think you don't like her opinions and rather than counter them directly, you resort to claiming that she is a fraud.