Iraq Update

I just watched an excellent interview with journalist Leila Fadel, who is the Baghdad bureau chief for McClatchy newspapers. She lays out an empathetic and introspective look at the war in Iraq. From Iran to al-Sadr to the U.S. soldiers, Fadel walks a vanishingly thin line as she and her Iraqi journalists try to report on the country.

Fadel's interview with PBS' Bill Moyers provides an excellent primer for the situation on the ground, as well as offer some thoughts as to Iraq's future.

I really suggest that you check it out.

LEILA FADEL: Covered in a scarf so that I wouldn't stand out in the neighborhood. I had to walk in 'cause there was a curfew. I had to take a taxi once I got inside with authorized vehicles. I had to go to the hospitals. And I was nervous. You know, I walked by one square at the entrance of Sadr City in the south. And the Iraqi residents in the area were telling me, "Oh, you gotta run through this area. There are American snipers on that roof."

And there were rumors that women and children were being killed. The U.S. military said that was not happening. Then I'm embedded with these guys [U.S. soldiers]. And they're in an abandoned house-- that they've never seen before. They're going through photo albums and trying to entertain themselves with air soft guns whenever they're not getting shot at. They were calling the little store that was this man's living, whoever lived there-- the Wal-Mart so that they could go in and get Lysol to try to clean the toilets that were no running water and no, you know, completely stopped up.

Nobody's innocent. And that's the difficult thing about this story is that, you know, right now the Mahdi Army is saying, "We're the victim of an offensive that is politically motivated" But they also have victimized so many people. I interviewed a commander in the Mahdi Army who was the most cold-blooded person I'd ever met.