Another View on Salam Pax

Spiked's Brendan O'Neill has an interesting, contrarian take on the journalistic lovefest directed at Baghdad blogger Salam Pax (for the record, I'm a fan). He argues that Salam is popular among Western audiences not because he gives deep insight into Iraq but because he reflects what those of us in Britain and America already hold near and dear. O'Neill concludes

By all means continue reading the Baghdad blogger, and, if you like that kind of thing, take pleasure in his everyday observations. But don't pretend that he reveals anything to us about the Iraqi mindset or about Iraqi people's hopes and aspirations. Rather, Salam tells us about ourselves—and, as we know, liberal journalists and bloggers like nothing better than to read about themselves.