Over this past weekend, I had the pleasure of reading an article written by Michael Yon for the Weekly Standard called All Quiet on the Baghdad front. It is a long, but helluva good read about election day in Iraq. When Iraqis went to the polls, the best news was what didn’t happen. Michael Yon also has a blog at Michael Yon: Online Magazine that highlights many of his dispatches as a reporter/journalist in Iraq. “independent, informed observer chronicling the monumentally important events in the efforts to stabilize Iraq. His dispatches have the benefit of his life experiences without drawbacks based on deadlines or demands of marketplace. The cost of these dispatches is borne solely by Michael”
It was through this article, and Michael Yon’s blog, that I learned about another journalist named Steven Vincent, who was very recently killed in Iraq by terrorist forces. After reading about Steven Vincent, I decided to look him up on the net to find his writings. What I found was his popular blog called In The Red Zone, where I found this be an extraordinary and candid post – and a book he had written by the same title: “In The Red Zone – a Journey into the soul of Iraq”.
An excerpt from his book:
We hadn’t considered it, those of us who supported the war. After all, it made no sense, it was unreasonable. And yet, the moment I spoke to that woman at the art gallery, I knew: even as they were being liberating from Saddam, Iraqis felt shamed by the fact that they couldn’t do the job themselves.
“If only you’d given us more time, we would have risen up and overthrown him,” a waiter at the Orient Palace lectured me a couple of days later. “It’s terrible, when I think of it,” a student at Baghdad University said. “A foreign army has to come across the world to free us from Saddam, who are we, then?”
This sense of indignity, of loss of ‘face,’ explained the ungracious gratitude many Iraqis evinced toward the U.S.the “Thanks America, now go home” syndrome. How naive we were to believe that they would greet our troops with flowers, as Dick Cheney so famously and wrongly predicted. As the Center for Strategic and International Studies explained in a report on Iraq’s reconstruction, “the United States should expect continuing resentment and disaffection even if the U.S.-led reconstruction efforts seem to be making positive, incremental improvements to the country according to quantifiable measures. In other words, the occupation will not be judged by the sum of its consequences, but rather qua occupation.”
After reading the excerpt of the book provided at the publishing house, and reading through Steven Vincent’s thoughts and writings on his blog at The Red Zone – - as well as reading writings by Michael Yon in his articles and his blog – - more and more I begin to seek out my news about Iraq not from our own media sources here in the United States, but from sources who are on the ground in Iraq. Those who are reporting from the area, itself.
Our own media coverage here in the States is too tainted, I fear, with partisan politics and agendas to even attempt to get a real story of what is actually going on there. This includes the likes of Fox News, as well. I don’t like my news and commentary tainted with agenda – which is why I just cannot stomach the likes of Sean Hannity any longer. The man’s head is so far up the arse of the Republican Party, it’s laughable.
I enjoy reading the stories of some of the embedded journalists. Of course you have to be careful – because some of those embedded journalists are just as partisan as their colleagues here in the states. I look for the independent ones. The ones who bankroll their own trips to Iraq and are there out of a quest for the truth, who are not tied to media outlets here in the states.
Steven Vincent was one such independent journalist in Iraq. As is Michael Yon.
I’m really looking forward to digging into Steven Vincent’s book, quite a lot. I ordered it from Amazon.com with special 1-day delivery and await it’s arrival with anticipation. I’m interested more in hearing the Iraqi voices and the commentary from an independent observer on the ground – rather than some media whip who just ripped the latest news nugget off the AP Wire and decided to write an Oped piece on it.
via Day by Day by Chris Muir
Related:
Spartacus has a review of Steven Vincent’s book.
Mudville Gazzette with Who Killed Steven Vincent?
Planet Huff brings us the last report from Steven Vincent.
Michelle Malkin with Steven Vincent RIP
The Yon article is the type of news that we should be receiving on a regular basis.
The excerpt from Vincent paints another perspective on the issue yet doesn’t negate what Yon writes of seeing. The Irqis can and will get the job done. It is understandable that there could be feelings of shame for not handling the problem on their own. It actually made me more certain of our decision to invade. The people had the will, but by no means had the ways necessary to overturn Saddam. There is no shame in that.
The real shame lies with the MSM and their blind, left wing bias that prevents them from presenting a fair picture of Iraq.
Left wing Media bias….what are you some kind of kook? You know the “Mainstream Media” are owned by greedy, white male, corporate republicans…what are you, stoopid?
Considering today’s well planned and coordinated attack on the very Main Stream Media that has been supporting the terrorists, I wonder if they’re finally going to get the idea that as far as the terrorists are concerned a dead westerner is a good westerner whether a supporter of the terrorists or not.
I’m almost betting that the answer to that is no.