Have walked Nativity Square wearing a flak jacket and a mobile
phone during the siege of '02, have ridden in a HUMVEE without
armored doors on the Philadelphi route in Gaza during Hamas/Islamic
Jihad attack, have darted along the alternate route at the Jordan
River wire, through the minefields, at sunset, to avoid the IDF
patrols and the fleeing Al Aqsa gunmen from another attack on the
West Bank, have entered Hebron several times in an unarmored
vehicle with only a pistol armed guide and my mobile phone and
blackberry to walk the Casbah and puzzle, have stood on Masada at
noontime on the second day of the Iraq operation, expecting Iraqi
incoming from H3 - all this is true, all this was reckless and
vainglorious and inexcusable. If anything negative had happened,
not only would I have expected condemnation from my sponsors, not
only would I have deserved the fury of my family (who did not
accede to risking the family unit before Dad departed to be Mr. War
Correspondent), but also there would not have been one cent of life
insurance cent available because of the clear violation of the war
zone warnings. Will I do similar again? Likely. There is the
paradox when you look at the reports of the Woodruff incident. What
he and his cameraman did, standing up in a lead Iraqi column
vehicle, was bottomlessly risky and, in the event of death, a truly
stupid way to die. Reporting in a war zone requires common sense
and proportional thinking. At the same time, there is something
cunningly compelling, plain joyful, when you are carrying a
microphone or camera in the face of the random enemy and unbeatable
odds. It may be a stealthy muse - one mordant, ruthless,
iron-minded stealthy muse, distant cousin to the Reaper - and it
may be that you are not going to listen to reason.
topics:
Islam, Iraq
