If you really want to understand what will happen in Iraq, I contend, you have to understand what the people of Iraq want. You have to understand how the people of Iraq think, what they are actually trying to accomplish. Iraq is not a helpless blank slate upon which mighty America writes its will. Far from it. The past several years have demonstrated yet again for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear the limits of military power – even if you are a ‘Superpower’.
There are lots of people who can tell you what Iraqis are really thinking and doing, because they are actually listening, instead of projecting their own agenda and wishful thinking upon Iraq. Such people we used to call journalists. Now, that profession has become so infested with what we used to call propagandists that we really need a new word. I’ll just call such people real journalists for the lack of anything better. One such real journalist who has been tirelessly and bravely talking to everyone on every side of this conflict is Nir Rosen.
Nir recently appeared on Fareed Zakaria’s Foreign Exchange, where he did something fairly hard to do: he made Fareed seem uniformed and naive. It’s well worth watching, and alone blows away much of the murk and bullshit that has been piled on topic of the future of Iraq (Nir’s appearance begins at 11:28, but the whole episode is worth watching, as usual):
If you are interested in hearing more from this courageous and intrepid journalist, You should consider reading his book on Iraq, "In the Belly of the Green Bird," which is available in the local library and through most booksellers. Nir also has a homepage with links to his most recent publications, all of which are well worth reading.
Thank goodness we still have a media free enough to provide us with honest voices like Nir’s. If we listen, we might actually be able to handle this mess and minimize the inevitable blow-back from our leaders’ monstrous stupidity, cupidity, and gullibility.
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Liza;
I want you to take your last statement and keep it in tact until AFTER the NEXT Presidential Election and a NEW President. Then play that tune again. The reasons for stablizing the middle east might just BE free access to Oil not just for The United States but for a WORLD HELD HOSTAGE to PRICES SET BY radical Islamic States!
That’s right, Dwight. It’s all about liberating people, mostly from their oil wealth.
This guy should have been imbedded in Europe during the Second World War maybe Hitler could have kicked our asses!!!! How dare we in America fight for Freedom; Liberty and Justice of oppressed peoples!!!
I have not heard of Nir Rosen and I will most definitely check him out. But, you are absolutely right, Michael. There have been some real journalists out there working tirelessly and risking their lives to do what journalists are supposed to do and that is to record the truth without bias. In today’s world, I think we are going to have to settle for just the truth.
One of my favorite investigative reporters right now is Pepe Escobar of the Asia Times Online. His writing style is very direct and certainly not without bias. He’s picked a hard row to hoe, reporting unembedded from the Mideast, but he’s always a good read. He’s one of the very few reporters who is trying to write about Iraq’s oil, a story that is notably absent in the US mainstream media and most of the independent media.
We owe a huge debt to these people who spend their lives uprooting the truth and making it available to the rest of us, or at least those of us “with media free enough to provide us with honest voices like Nir’s.”