Healing Iraq
Monday, October 9, 2006
WASHINGTON D.C. — This is probably a failing just on my part, one that you may not share: For me, the face of the war in Iraq has been, well, mostly American.
On Saturday, though, I got to hear Zeyad, a young Iraqi dentist whose blog “Healing Iraq” gives a ground-level view of the reality of life for civilians in his country. He started his blog after the invasion, written in English — he spent a few years in England as a young boy — to cover news that he believed was being ignored by the Western press.
Soon after the war, for example, Zeyad covered a large pro-democracy demonstration that received scant attention in the U.S. media.
“Three years ago, I thought the media wasn’t covering the good news from Iraq,” he told journalists assembled for the Online News Assn. annual conference. He added: “I thought their coverage was missing something important — a local perspective.”
Zeyad’s perspective has changed, however.
“The last year, I think they don’t report how bad it is,” he said.
The sectarian violence, he said, has made life miserable for Iraqis. Zeyad said his Baghdad neighborhood is Sunni; it is surrounded by Shiite neighborhoods. At night, both sides trade mortar fire.
“It goes on every night,” Zeyad said. “At least 10 people are injured every night.”
Kidnappings and executions are common, he said.
“I think that’s a civil war,” he said.
The situation is so dangerous, he said, that “many of the good bloggers are not in the country. They’re leaving, they’re so frustrated.”
And Zeyad appears to be among the exodus. Although he continues to blog — relying on reports from family and friends — he has started attending a journalism graduate school at the City University of New York, and he’s not quite sure what he’ll do after he’s finished.
He’s still frustrated, though, but Western media that ignore the human faces of the war.
“You only get numbers,” he said. “Twenty people were killed, 50 people were killed.”
But, he acknowledged: “It’s extremely dangerous for Western reporters” to venture outside the Green Zone to collect those stories. The American media is restricted “to a few block of Baghdad, not even the whole capital.”
Kevin Sites, a journalist for Yahoo! News, also spoke Saturday — and agreed that the “local story” of any war needs more coverage.
“These conflicts aren’t about the combatants; the combatants are peripheral,” he said. “It’s about the civilians. It’s the victims, stupid.”
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Posted by ladylaw (Terry Bush) on October 9, 2006 at 10:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Leonard Pitts said (last Thursday night when he spoke at the Lied's Center) that there are 76 deaths, per day, in Iraq from war related incidents. And Iraq (he said) is roughly the size of California. Thus, he theorized, if there were 76 deaths per day, in California, directly related to one cause, that news would take front and center to any/all things else.
Madeline Albright said (two weeks ago when she spoke in town) that the Iraq war would end up as one of America's worst policy failures.
And today we hear that North Korea has set off an underground Nuclear bomb, as a test run, which has Japan scrambling (to name only one country that is taking it seriously).
Often, we only learn "the whole" story decades after its over and done. It's hard to see things clearly when you are right in the middle or on top of the thing.
However, right here & now, I have to wonder if there will be a tomorrow from which to judge how things are being handled now. But then, I've always been a bit paranoid when it comes to war and all its "fall-out".
Posted by alm77 (anonymous) on October 9, 2006 at 11:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Yeah, but don't you watch movies LL? We're in Kansas, the safest place in the US. (sarcasm intended)
It feels like the 80s all over again.
Posted by ladylaw (Terry Bush) on October 9, 2006 at 3:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
80's? Try the 60's. Or the 50's (my era)! I have lived most of my life afraid of the "big one". Probably why I am such a peace-nik. However, over time I've become less panicky - just a little. Based upon all the sabre rattling I've seen (and resulting desire to find/build & live in a well stocked bomb shelter far below ground), it appears that no generation is free from the threat or worry about "the next big one"! Would that such fears would help us all - world wide - find a way to make and keep lasting peace.
However, given what I've seen of human nature in the 50 decades of my life, that will only be possible if/when there are 2 or fewer humans left; we can't even be nice to each other on-line (e.g. all the name calling and nasty attitudes).
It's really easy to say how OTHER people should become or act differently; i.e. more wisely and more peaceful. However, it seems to be too hard for us to even be more peaceful on our own ...... let alone spread those attitudes and traits world wide. Still, it would be nice to start some peace right now, here in each of our own hearts and home.
I think it may be a bit like that one "Ghost Buster" movie, where the evil sludge under the city grew larger and larger and stronger and stronger - the more people fought and hated each other. The only thing that killed it were love, happy thoughts, songs, and sweetness.
War and Peace may be like that. Feed what you want to see grow; the more we fear and hate, the more there is to fear and hate.
Posted by clayhill70 (anonymous) on October 9, 2006 at 7 p.m. (Suggest removal)
LL. I'm afraid our crowd will be known as the" Asleep at the Wheel" generation.
Well deserved I'd say.
Posted by alm77 (anonymous) on October 9, 2006 at 10:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yeah, I don't remember the 50's or 60's or 70's. Wow. So think about that for a minute. In the past 50 years, we've only been unafraid for like 15 years or so? Hmmmm.
Posted by ladylaw (Terry Bush) on October 10, 2006 at 10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I am friends with a soldier/cop/attorney/historian who pointed out that there have always been terrible conflicts going on across the world. However, back when society had to depend upon such things as the pony express for their news, the general population only got to hear about it months or even years later - and even then didn't get too concerned as long as the news wasn't of a presidential assinination or a world war etc.! His point, I think, is/was that there really aren't that many more awful catestrophic things happening; just more people and better means of communicating everything. The immediate nature of tragic news may make it seem like the world is going downhill fast, but it appears it has been on that same incline for as long as there have been human beings!
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