My (imaginary) friend named Bob

This is exactly the kind of reporting we need more of in Iraq: More continuing to question conventional wisdom, whether aligned with a right or left talking point, to find the truth.

Seems we have a reporter who simply wants to know how an anonymous blog commenter ("Bob") can claim progress in Iraq, despite the violence that is a daily reality for Iraqis today:

Some readers and viewers think we journalists are exaggerating about the situation in Iraq. I can almost understand that because who would want to believe that things are this bad? Particularly when so many people here started out with such good intentions.

I'm more puzzled by comments that the violence isn't any worse than any American city. Really? In which American city do 60 bullet-riddled bodies turn up on a given day? In which city do the headless bodies of ordinary citizens turn up every single day? In which city would it not be news if neighborhood school children were blown up? In which neighborhood would you look the other way if gunmen came into restaurants and shot dead the customers?

Day-to-day life here for Iraqis is so far removed from the comfortable existence we live in the United States that it is almost literally unimaginable.

I'm curious to see if "Bob" responds and backs up his claims, or if his comments are as imagined as his onscreen persona.

(Thanks go to Kos for posting this.)