Foreword, and Sunday, August 17, 2003. Summary and Analysis

The beginning of the novelization of Riverbend's blog, Baghdad Burning, starts with a foreword by James Ridgeway, putting the events that occur in historical context. Ridgeway's account broadly talks about what happened during the Second Iraq War and the subsequent Coalition occupation, as well as historical facts of what events were catalogued 'behind the scenes' (such as Paul Wolfowitz becoming one of the 'architects for war').

The blog itself starts with Riverbend 'waking up' and describing what it is like to be awoken, suddenly or quietly, in an occupied country. From here her entries move on to describe the political current situation in Iraq: that the CPA (the Coalition Provisional Authority) have set up a rotating presidency of nine candidates; each who get to govern Iraq for a month at a time so that the...