What you don't know can hurt you.

From time to time, because of Riverbend's ubiquity and articulateness, I've grown suspicious of her authenticity. Oh, her views (generally contrary to those of Bush and, most relevantly, Tribune Bremer) accord with mine (based on her experience with the American occupation of her country, in the main) but still she oftimes seems to know too much and express it too well to be real. "Too good to be true" is the applicable adage.

But her latest post ("Sheiks and tribes"), an exposition of cousin marriage and tribal connection in Iraq, in which she critiques an article on the subject in the NYT, has convinced me, once and for all, that her Baghdad Burning blog is for real: an articulate, sensitive expression of the woman's experiences and observations during the occupation.

I wonder if the NeoCons studied up on tribal influence and considered its impact on their plan to impose the American empire on Iraq, on the world. I think not.