I finally got the chance to read the entire copy of Farnaz Fassihi's email from Iraq. Farnaz is a journalist with the Wall Street Journal. Her editors say that her pieces are unbiased, and their publication is pretty conservative in its viewpoint.
Which makes the email all the more shocking. This email is the vented frustration of someone living under almost intolerable strain, and although there is emotion threading its way through every paragraph, it is on the most part a simple recital of conditions that she sees on a daily basis, and how they are affecting her.
I highly recommend this as required reading for anyone who'd like a raw and unvarnished view from Ground Zero, aka Baghdad. Is it biased? Of course it is! But this is truth as one person sees it who is, quite literally, in the war zone. This is the truth that is hinted at behind the emotionaless articles.
Forget politics. Forget governments. Forget exit strategies. Forget long-term goals and the greater good. This is the human element. This is how all of those "bigger pictures" translate on the scale of a single human being:
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=72659
Whatever your politics, whether you support the war in Iraq or not, whether you think the greater good is worth this or not, you should read this. Too often we see only the carefully crafted speeches, and hear only the soundbites. Remember, for every policy decision, there is someone who has to live it. Look at things from their side of the mirror too.
I remember war from a personal perspective, and that's why I oppose it. Other people will read that email and be all the more firmly convinced that our troop presence there is necessary. I don't agree with you, but that's okay. Just acknowledge that this human perspective exists.
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