Iraq: Inside the Green Zone

Geoffrey Stone's criticism of the press in Baghdad in Baghdad left me gasping. Has he ever tried to report Iraq? Where is the press? It is hunkered down in the Palestine Hotel away from the windows and unable to move. It takes an armoured car to get to a Green Zone press conference and a military convoy to the airport in the two-three hours the road is sufficiently hosed down by security to be half safe. Embeds are just that. They do precisely what they are told. The only other source of news, apart from Al-Jazeerah and its like, is unbelievably brave locals, "Alis", who chase after bomb blasts and kidnap stories. A year ago I walked in the market square in Fallujah. I have done some crazy things in my time but I would not walk down any street in Baghdad today. Please, America, realize that in Iraq you have not created another Vietnam or Beirut or Somalia. You have created something far, far worse and getting more so. If you won't go and report it, at least believe it.