With Pulitzer Prize-winner Anthony Shadid going back to the war-torn Iraq and the great work photographer Andrea Bruce is doing there, the real picture of Iraq has finally emerged, after two years of regular, non-powerful articles that did not reflect much of the country’s turmoil.
Shadid who won the Pulitzer for International Reporting in 2004 has recently returned to the segregated, wall-divided Baghdad which he left a few years ago. It hasn’t been that long since his stories started bringing my attention again. Like in his must-read book Night Draws Near, his stories are full of life. You can actually imagine yourself in whatever place or situation he describes. And of course, on today’s Washington Post front page, Shadid had THE story. In an article that other reporters have actually failed in investigating, he was the one who wrote in details about what Iraqis really feel these days. His words in his “In Iraq, the Day After” were extremely similar to what I hear from my family and friends, something American news headlines have intentionally ignored since last year.
Before Shadid returned to Iraq, I have been mostly fond of one particular thing on washingtonpost.com: Unseen Iraq, a blog maintained by Andrea Bruce, a Washington Post staff photographer who received several awards for her international photography. In addition to her amazing eye in shooting pictures, Bruce has a great style of writing and an honest description of the images she snaps.
That being said, I would advice the readers of this blog to follow Shadid and Bruce’s great work more often. Their work is honest, sincere, and accurate and is not motivated by certain propaganda. It is a mere reflection of life through words and photos.
Blog.bassamsebti@gmail.com
Shadid who won the Pulitzer for International Reporting in 2004 has recently returned to the segregated, wall-divided Baghdad which he left a few years ago. It hasn’t been that long since his stories started bringing my attention again. Like in his must-read book Night Draws Near, his stories are full of life. You can actually imagine yourself in whatever place or situation he describes. And of course, on today’s Washington Post front page, Shadid had THE story. In an article that other reporters have actually failed in investigating, he was the one who wrote in details about what Iraqis really feel these days. His words in his “In Iraq, the Day After” were extremely similar to what I hear from my family and friends, something American news headlines have intentionally ignored since last year.
Before Shadid returned to Iraq, I have been mostly fond of one particular thing on washingtonpost.com: Unseen Iraq, a blog maintained by Andrea Bruce, a Washington Post staff photographer who received several awards for her international photography. In addition to her amazing eye in shooting pictures, Bruce has a great style of writing and an honest description of the images she snaps.
That being said, I would advice the readers of this blog to follow Shadid and Bruce’s great work more often. Their work is honest, sincere, and accurate and is not motivated by certain propaganda. It is a mere reflection of life through words and photos.
Blog.bassamsebti@gmail.com
7 Comments:
hi. i read all the links yesterday. the blog..wow. Andrea Bruce is an amazing writer. very poetic.
it is really hard for me to talk about those walls, especially with whats going on in gaza. it makes it hard to get into them, yeah. but it isn't hard to figure out they act as prisons, or they will be acting as prisons anytime anyone wants them to.
i still think that was the whole pretense for the surge, and the violence leading up to it, to get those walls built. i wonder when the plans were drawn up. before the war started? sorry doesn't really cut it. i wonder if they will ever come down.
Bassam, everyday when i come to your site i note no one else has commented on this excellent post. why? why? is iraq just forgotten about? well, it isn't by me. not in the least.
thank you for the post.
Annie,
Iraq has long been forgotten. I noticed it when I first landed here in 2006.
Thanks for caring and for keeping us in your mind and heart. I have some good international friends who still care about Iraq like you do.
heart Bassam, my heart to yours and to iraq.
Anthony Shadid wrote another article today Bassam, i don't know if you have had a chance to review it. pg A!
The Political Dance in Iraq's South
U.S. raid kills Iraqi man, woman in their bed
BAGHDAD — An Iraqi couple was killed in their bed Saturday morning as their daughter slept between them when U.S. forces raided their home.
The U.S. military said that the raid, in the area of Hawija, just west of Kirkuk, was an Iraqi government approved operation against a wanted man and that the killings were in self-defense. But the family described the slayings of a modest farmer, his wife and the wounding of their daughter by U.S. forces as the three slept.
According to a U.S. military statement, at 2 a.m. U.S. and Iraqi soldiers entered the bedroom where the couple lay and the woman reached under the mattress. The soldiers told her multiple times to show her hands; when she didn't, they shot her, the statement said.
The woman's husband, Dhia Hussein Ali, jumped up and "physically attacked" the soldiers after his wife was shot, the statement said. The soldiers killed him in self-defense, the statement said. The couple's 9-year-old daughter, Alham, was injured during the attack.
..
U.S. and Iraqi troops went to the house because they believed Ali was a member of Al Qaida in Iraq and later identified him as a wanted terrorist,
The U.S. military said the operation was "fully coordinated with Iraqi authorities (who were also present for the operation) and conducted with full respect for the Iraqi Constitution and the laws of Iraq."
2am? so much for judges and juries. if armed military can't subdue people sleeping in their beds without killing them, thats says a lot.
this is gross. you could just slaughter anyone you wanted in the middle of the night and claim they are terrorists. this is the rule of law?
oh my Bassam i just read the rest of the article which i just posted. it is truly horrific.
from the mouth of babes.
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