Here I am sitting around the press room in the Green Zone, waiting to go out into Baghdad and find some STORIES. And then suddenly it occurred to me that there are about 25 really interesting stories hanging around within ten feet of me here, just waiting to get discovered. Your fearless reporter Jane is on the job!
I'm typing this from inside a room the size of a large trailer -- actually it sort of IS a large trailer. There's a table for this computer, a table for food, some hook-ups for laptops, four sets of bunk beds, two couches and eleven cots. Journalists are typing, sleeping, eating Cheerios, sorting through their dirty laundry, chatting and shrugging into their Kevlar to go out on an embed.
"Is there any coffee left?" Yes. And a box of Girl Scout cookies too.
"Where are you off to today," I asked a journalist from Finland.
"I'm gonna spend another day at the Combat Support Hospital." He and about three other journalists spend a lot of time there. Apparently, it's like Gray's Anatomy -- so many doctors, so many operations, so many stories. "You see a lot of tragedy there but the hardest to deal with are the children. Yesterday there was a four-year-old Iraqi boy with shrapnel in his abdomen. My son is that age. It really got to me."
Some journalists come rushing into the press room with blood on their khakis, muttering something about having just been missed by a mortar round or having just witnessed a firefight. And some journalists seem to be very reserved and quiet about their accomplishments -- storing up their energy between grueling assignments out in the field.
Another journalist was on his way to embed in a western province today. "I've been following this one GI all through his training in the states and now I'm going to fly out to interview him here in Iraq." That's a lot of effort to put into a story. Go you.
Most of the journalists here bring their own laptops and let me hog the only hard-drive computer. However, there was one German guy who insisted on fighting me for it and he and I would always have mock wars which usually ended with us laughing so much we forgot what we were fighting about. But then some French journalist arrived and he got really NASTY about it. "You were on that computer until midnight last night! Now it's MY turn." He's right. I've been busted. My bad.
Ten feet away from me, three Iraqi journalists and an Iraqi cameraman are sound asleep. I have so much respect for Iraqi journalists. They ask the hard questions at the press conferences, they follow the troops into the heat of battle and they risk their lives daily for stories. In the last few months, 15 of them have been killed.
Here is an example of some of their questions:
1. Is the continued use of car bombs the fault of the security forces?
2. 2000 families have moved out of Mosul because of threats. Why don't you deploy more security forces in Mosul?
3. Many ministries such as the Interior, Defense and Energy, are ineffective. What are you doing about that?
4. Americans are handing over the hot spots to Iraqi forces but the Iraqi forces are not capable of handling this....
5. Has the dialog between the [insurgent and government] parties started yet?
6. The U.S. has been waging war for four years and we still have violence and no electricity! We need more electricity!
Stillwater is a freelance writer who hates injustice and corruption in any form but especially injustice and corruption paid for by American taxpayers. She has recently published a book entitled, "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips For Touring Today's Middle East". According to Ms. Stillwater, "It's a fabulous and entertaining book. I loved writing it. And I hope that you will love reading it too." It's available at http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719 or you can special order it at any independent bookstore.
Even though it is sickening, I'm glad you covered the story about the kid/s. This is what makes this or any war so sickening. We are adults, yet we cannot protect the kids of the world. It makes you wonder what kind of people we are. Too many greed, selfish, power hungry leaders; so few compassionate ones like Ghandi. We worship the rich and powerful. We barely notice the loving.
Keep writing. Good article.
by
skyreader7 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 181 comments)
on Wednesday, April 11, 2007 at 11:15:07 PM
Why do I get the feeling I'm getting the real story with Jane. It's now the first thing I read every morning. Just like she said about her daughter being a reporter, I think she is crazy for being there but I respect the hell out of her for it. Keep em comming. Speaking strickly for me I am SO ready for a world where we do not put shrapnel into our children. Time for some evolution.
by
davy (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 240 comments)
on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 3:32:08 AM
3 comments
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