A Splendidly Lethal War (For Journalists)
There’s a cool interview with David Halberstam which points out that at current rates, if the Iraq invasion and occupation was to stretch out as long as the occupation in Vietnam did, then nearly 4,500 journalists would be killed.
In the 21 years between 1954, when the French were defeated in Indo-China, and 1975, when the combat stopped in Vietnam, 63 journalists were killed. During the fighting in the Balkans from the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991 to the pacification of Kosovo in 1999, 61 were killed. Since the U.S. began bombarding Iraq three weeks ago, 12 journalists have been killed or died covering the fighting. If the conflict in Iraq were to last as long as the war in Southeast Asia — and current casualty rates remained constant — 4,368 journalists would die.
Meanwhile, the widow of the Al Jazeera journalist killed during the US bombing of their studio had this to say:
“My husband was not going there [to Iraq] because he was a warrior. He was only doing his job … This was supposed to be a clean war, but what I see is blood, destruction and shattered hearts.”
Earlier here.