Embedded

Just finished a good read on the most recent Iraq war, "Embedded," by--drat!
brain function failure again!--anyway, the online booksellers will have the
details. It's a series of vignettes of various embedded reporters' adventures.
I know that doesn't sound like much, but it really is a rip-roaring good read,
and gives a very graphic depiction of the horror house that was Saddam's Iraq.
Goes on the shelf with "The March Up."

There are a couple of unflattering anecdotes about embedded
correspondents in The March Up, including one where a European?
reporter is seen looting an Iraqi store. (Marines were looting too,
but they got scorched by the sergeant major. Nobody scorched the
reporter.)

But the neatest touch in the book is when the commander of the 1st
Marine Div decides to enter East Baghdad in force, based on his
knowledge of the warm greeting his marines were getting in the city.
This intelligence he garnered by looking at the TV in his tent, which
was tuned to CNN. There was a CNN camera crew embedded in his forward
patrol.

Incidentally, I have sat in on a few conversations with returning military
types, plus read some letters and e-mails from folks still in country, and
there certainly does seem to be a huge disconnect between what they are saying
about conditions in Iraq and what is reported on the news. Something is
screwy.

Well, I don't know. Is it screwy or just standard operating procedure?

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

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