Omar and Mohammed, Iraqi bloggers from the Iraq the Model blog, met President Bush the other day. Tonight, in Santa Monica, I had the honor of meeting them at the Spirit of America event. It was an experience I will remember my entire life.

I was fortunate enough to get the chance to speak with both of them — and I was honored that they appeared to know who I was when I told them I was “Patterico.” (I’m on their blogroll, but I wasn’t sure how well they would remember what got me there: my role in getting the L.A. Times to correct the record on Paul Bremer’s farewell speech. They seemed to remember.)

It was an incredibly inspirational and uplifting experience. These are men who learned to love freedom and democracy by secretly reading books that were banned in Saddam’s Iraq. In 1999, hungry for more knowledge of what was going on in the world, they bought a satellite dish for their TV — an illegal act that could have earned them 6 months in jail. (They hid the dish by putting a fence around it.) They started a blog to get the word out to the world that many Iraqis are grateful to America for allowing the concepts of freedom and democracy to take root in Iraq. Writing their blog puts them at risk even today.

I thought it was a shame that more Americans are not hearing from them. They are friendly and relatively soft-spoken, but it would be impossible for any rational person to meet them and not be inspired by their passion for freedom and their vision of democracy in Iraq. As Roger L. Simon notes, even Michael Moore might have trouble spewing his propaganda if he had to say it to Omar and Mohammed directly. And if he did have the nerve to do it, I’d love to be there to watch them rip him to shreds — calmly, in a steady voice, with the power and authority of experience. Kind of like Ali did today with some other fools.

One thing Omar and Mohammed say repeatedly is that we are not getting the true picture of Iraq from the media. This is a problem here in the U.S., of course, but it’s far worse in Iraq. Most Iraqis hate Al Jazeera, they said, but it is still the main source for news. It has correspondents everywhere, and “somehow” they are always there when there is a bombing.

It stands to reason that Iraqis would be pleased to be rid of Saddam. But the media tries to tell you otherwise every day. The media tells you that Iraqis resent our presence, and don’t appreciate our actions in ousting Saddam. Yet here — standing right in front of me, shaking my hand, and speaking with me — were Omar and Mohammed, telling me it’s not true. Iraqis want democracy, they said. Our troops regularly have positive interactions with Iraqis, they said, but the media reports only the negative ones.

Who am I going to believe? Our media? Or Omar and Mohammed?

They were right about Paul Bremer’s speech, and I’ll take their word over the media’s any day.

(By the way, I see that, according to Jeff Jarvis, they were scheduled to meet with the L.A. Times. Had I known beforehand, you can bet I would have asked them about it. Do you think the L.A. Times will use the occasion to point out that these are the guys who corrected their own reporter about what was going on during the transition of power?)

I asked Omar about their visit with President Bush. “When are you going to fill President Bush’s cavity?” I teased Omar. He said that Bush had a good way of putting people at ease. In the Q&A, Mohammed said Bush told them that we are going to finish the job there. You could see how much that pleased them.

These men grew up in Iraq, but share so many bonds with Americans. They love freedom. They love democracy.

“I am optimistic,” Omar routinely says. So are Americans. That is a common bond as well.

Omar and Mohammed say that the countries surrounding Iraq fear that Iraq will become a model of democracy. Those countries fear having an example of democracy in their midst, the brothers say. So they are sending in people to fight against it. Iraqis want democracy, they insist.

Here’s the part I love best, as a firm believer in the power of blogs:

Omar and Mohammed, with the help of Spirit of America, are working on bringing the power of blogs to Iraq on a larger scale.

They are using an Arabic language tool to empower Iraqis to set up their own blogs, and will be giving free blogs to Iraqis.

I can’t tell you how important I think this is. It was enough to get me to double my previous donation to Spirit of America.

Look, if you read this blog on a regular basis, then you know that I am a great believer in the power of the Web, citizens’ media, the blogosphere, the internet — call it what you will, but it’s people giving their own opinions without the filtering from a media that too often has its own agenda. It is a Force for Truth — and there is no greater force out there. And Omar and Mohammed are working to bring that powerful force to Iraq. To find a way around the Al Jazeeras of the world. To give a voice to people who love freedom — and want to find others who share that love.

Mohammed and Omar — and their brother Ali, who is running for the National Assembly in January — are courageous pioneers, looking to bring their country out of the dark ages of repression via the power of the internet.

There were extensive and intelligent questions from the audience afterwards. One question and answer really stayed with me long after I left. Someone asked: if America could supply three things to Iraq, what is needed most? Omar’s answer: “Support, love, and encouragement.” Material things will help, he said, but mostly Iraqis need to know that we are standing with them.

We are standing with them, and we will continue to do so.

If you want to take a positive step to help Omar and Mohammed use blogs to spread the power of individual speech to Iraqis, go here and make a big donation. Dig deep. There is no more worthy cause.

UPDATE: And the morons who have suggested that the Fadhil brothers’ blog is really just a CIA project? I have some personal insights about them, here.