Salam Pax

the long version

In September 2002, a young Iraqi calling himself 'Salam Pax' began posting accounts of everyday life in Baghdad onto the internet. Written in English, these bulletins contained everything from reviews of the latest CDs, to descriptions of Saddam's brutality. In writing this web diary, Salam took a huge risk. Had he been caught criticizing Saddam on his web site, it would have cost him his life. Salam Pax's incisive and dryly funny articles soon attracted a massive worldwide readership. In the months that followed, as an American-led force gathered to destroy the Iraqi regime, his diary became a unique record of denial and disbelief, resentment, amusement and terror felt by an ordinary man living through the final days of a long dictatorship, and the chaos that followed its destruction. This book collects together Salam Pax's writings to tell the story of the war in Iraq from inside that besieged country. It provides a uniquely gripping perspective on the conflict and its aftermath. It is a remarkable document.