A few months ago, I traveled to a place I’d never visited before: Mbale, Uganda. I wasn’t there to marvel at the vastness of Lake Victoria or spend a day at a safari park, though I wished I’d had time to see mountain gorillas. I was there to Meet Noor, a girl I met 11 years …
Continue reading “What I learned from a girl in Iraq: Human being first, journalist second”
I awoke to news today that Iraqi forces were claiming victory in Mosul. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi arrived in Mosul to personally deliver a message of victory to the world: ISIS had been driven out of the city in northern Iraq that had been the extremist group’s crown jewel. Victory. Yes. But at tremendous cost. The …
Continue reading “Iraq: Victory in Mosul, but at what cost?”
I woke up to extremely sad news today. NPR photojournalist David Gilkey was killed in Afghanistan, along with interpreter Zabihullah Tamanna. Another friend who worked tirelessly in the world’s most difficult places, gone. David and Zabihullah were traveling with an Afghan army unit, according to the report I heard on NPR this morning. They came under …
Continue reading “David Gilkey: remembering an incredible photojournalist”
My heart breaks every time I read news from Iraq. So much so that I find myself clicking away or turning off the radio. Ramadi, the capital of al-Anbar province, has fallen to the Islamic State. I think of the people I met there during the height of the Iraq War and have to stave …
Here’s to you, Blacksheep — 3rd platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment. Thinking of that hot day in April, 2006, when you completed your last patrol. I was with you in the worst of times and you showed me the best. I feel proud to know all of you. Saluting your courage …
Who are the Yezedis, the 40,000 people who are hiding in the Sinjar Mountains from the horror of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants? They are not Muslims. They are a people largely forgotten by the world. In 2007, I had the opportunity to spend time in Nineveh province in the towns and …
I met Mike when sectarian strife exploded in Baghdad in 2006. That was not his real name, of course, but it was what he went by in his job as a translator for American soldiers. Mike and I spent several evenings chatting at a coffee shop on the vast Camp Liberty complex. He was a smart …
Occasionally, I pick up my iPhone and am pleasantly surprised to see an incoming call from a soldier I met in Iraq. The other night, it was Mike Brown, who helped train Iraqi security forces for a year in Baghdad. He wanted nothing in general, nothing in particular. Just to say hello. His call …
We lost another amazing journalist today. Anja Niedringhaus, 48, an acclaimed photographer for the Associated Press, died instantly after an Afghan policeman opened fire while they were sitting in their car in eastern Afghanistan, the AP said. Correspondent Kathy Gannon was wounded and is in stable condition in hospital. “Anja and Kathy together have spent years in …
I just read an excerpt from Peter Baker’s new book, “Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House. It’s being touted as the most comprehensive account of the Bush-Cheney years, at least until historical archives are opened to the public. What’s clear from the book is that Cheney was a major driver of …
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