Just in time for our survey of independent online journalists (bloggers) overseas, several outstanding new posts:
- Bill Ardolino of INDC Journal interviewed an Iraqi policeman in Fallujah:
INDC: So why are local Fallujans fighting other Fallujans?
Mohammed: “Because the al Qaeda organization came to this city and controlled it so hard by killing. And some people here actually like killing and they liked Saddam Hussein as well, and I think the al Qaeda organization and Saddam Hussein are the same face.”
INDC: What do you mean by “the same face,” because Saddam was secular, he was not religious and al Qaeda is …
Mohammed: “Because the language they use is killing. And the same people who used to be with Saddam, now they participate with the insurgency.”
- Michael Totten has a long interview with a senior Lebanese cleric who supports nonviolence and democracy: Sayyed Mohammad Ali El Husseini.
“I hope that my voice will be heard in the world,” Husseini said, “to separate between the two lines, the devil line, the killing line, the bad thoughts, terrorism, and the peaceful line, peace and love, living in dignity, all of that. I also hope that the State Department, and other people who can arrange this, if they would invite me and some of my friends to discuss the situation here in Lebanon. They think the Shia people here in Lebanon are all on Nasrallah’s side. That is not right.”
- From Mosul, Michael Yon has given a two-part interview to Pundit Review Radio. Selected quotes: “I’ve seen a tremendous difference between the capabilities they [the ISF, Iraqi Security Forces in Anbar Province] have today and what they had in 2005. … Their confidence level is much, much higher. … It’s definitely in a bad situation, there’s no question about it … I will call it as it lands regardless of politics … Iraq is very winnable.” Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here (via Power Line).
The success of bloggers on the ground in Iraq shouldn’t eclipse what can be done in long-form investigative journalism. The New Yorker has published some very good articles, including:
- Azzam the American: The Making of an American Homegrown, an arm’s-length profile of an American teenager turned al-Qaeda propagandist.
- Knowing the Enemy: Can Social Scientists Redefine the War on Terror?, a survey of counterinsurgency theory from eccentrically intellectual soldiers and eccentrically militant intellectuals. (3/15/07: The story has gone. But here is a cache.)
March 4, 2007 at 11:57 pm |
[...] UPDATE: Also in the Small Wars Journal, Petraeus advisor David Kilcullen calls the Baghdad security operation a “marathon.” “The message for all of us, as professionals who do this for a living, is patience, patience, patience. The war has been going for nearly four years, the current strategy less than four weeks. We need to give it time.” (His emphasis.) We linked to a New Yorker profile of Mr. Kilcullen and other counter-insurgency theorists in a January 17 post on bloggers in Iraq. [...]