What it's really like in Iraq

"W" keeps claiming the situation in Iraq is getting better all the time, it's not as bad as all those "hand-wringers" say- even if some of those people are from his own party, and even in charge at the Pentagon..

People who are actually IN Iraq would beg to differ.

This is a letter from Wall Street Journal reporter Farnaz Fassihi to many of her friends. It's available online at Poynter Online, a site for journalists. I am including the text of her letter behind the cut, as they do add to their misc. section regularly and the letter may become harder to find.

( WSJ reporter Fassihi's e-mail to friends )

Update: Thank you to curmudgeon for a very important correction!

(no subject)

Except for having to work, my birthday has been a nice day.

When I came home tonight, Peter had made a card for me (with one of those messages inside that left me all melty), and made up a nice snacky evening of wine, cheeses, assorted stuffed olives, and crackers. We'd talked about going to a movie or something, but since we both have to work tomorrow we're going to wait for the weekend.

This last year started out pretty rough, but we got through it. This year will be much better.