Segmentation Fault: Core dumped..;-)

..by the time the two candidates are done debating tonight, there would be atleast 5 potentially lethal attacks on American soldiers!

Posted : September 30, 2004 at 2:30 pm [America/Los_Angeles]

[via WSJ reporter Fassihi’s e-mail to friends]

From: [Wall Street Journal reporter] Farnaz Fassihi
Subject: From Baghdad

Being a foreign correspondent in Baghdad these days is like being under virtual house arrest. Forget about the reasons that lured me to this job: a chance to see the world, explore the exotic, meet new people in far away lands, discover their ways and tell stories that could make a difference.

Little by little, day-by-day, being based in Iraq has defied all those reasons. I am house bound. I leave when I have a very good reason to  and a scheduled interview. I avoid going to people’s homes and never  walk in the streets. I can’t go grocery shopping any more, can’t eat in restaurants, can’t strike a conversation with strangers, can’t look for stories, can’t drive in any thing but a full armored car, can’t go to scenes of breaking news stories, can’t be stuck in traffic, can’t speak English outside, can’t take a road trip, can’t say I’m an American, can’t linger at checkpoints, can’t be curious about what people are saying, doing, feeling. And can’t and can’t. There has been one too many close calls, including a car bomb so near our house that it blew out all the windows. So now my most pressing concern every day is not to write a kick-ass story but to stay alive and make
sure our Iraqi employees stay alive. In Baghdad I am a security personnel first, a reporter second.

…
Insurgents now attack Americans 87 times a day.

…

WSJ reporter Fassihi’s e-mail to friends

87 times a day. That’s 3.6 times per hour! Take a moment to think about this. It means that by the time the two candidates are done debating tonight, there would be atleast 5 potentially lethal attacks on American soldiers! Forget about the number of attacks our soldiers will face by the time the spinmeisters are done doing their song-and-dance after the debate tonight.

If this is not enough for the two gentlemen to pour their heart and soul tonight in the debate, I don’t know what else would.

Ugh..

- Anand

Category: United (or not) State of American Politics 2004 |