That assessment might be a bit harsh towards all the other practitioners of the art of journalism, most of whom are decent individuals who take their jobs seriously (or at least they think they do). But every now and then a singular figure like CNN's Michael Ware comes along to push the boundaries and show what journalism can and should be--and must be, if we are to maintain our republic.
This post was prompted by this article in Men's Health. Read it. Then meet me under the fold for further discussion of this brilliant man who has literally put everything on the line to bring the untold stories of this misbegotten war into the living rooms of millions of Americans.
I first became aware of Ware shortly after his transfer from Time to CNN in 2006. I quickly came to look forward to his candid and blunt assessments of the situation on the ground in Baghdad. Most reporters, then and now, filed their Iraq dispatches from the safety of the Green Zone. All too often "journalism" took the form of asking Coalition officials what the news was and then dutifully transcribing it. To the extent the "facts on the ground" ever permeated the news filter, they came from non-American (usually Iraqi) journalists and stringers who risked their lives in the "Red Zone" of the rest of Iraq, reporting from the scenes of suicide bombings, where deaths from follow-up attacks and violent reprisals were (and are) all too common. It is a testament to the odd creature that is Michael Ware that he was more often found in the company of the locals than in the security of the "Emerald City." Alongside Time's Bobby Ghosh and Nir Rosen (whose book "In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq" is the most informative and depressing account of how Iraq fell apart), Michael Ware has made invaluable contributions to his viewers' understanding of this labyrinthine conflict.
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Greg Veis' haunting article lets us get a glimpse of the hell Ware must have through these last 5 and a half years in Iraq. Embedded with our troops Ware developed a real rapport with them. "'I can’t stand the media, but I would go through hell with a bucket of gasoline for Michael Ware," says Sergeant Bellavia, who was nominated for the Medal of Honor for his service in Fallujah. 'He goes through all the things we go through — 55 cigs a day, no sleep. And if we were allowed to drink, we’d drink as much as he does. When you look at him, you look into vacant eyes. He looks like my military friends do. He’s seen enough shit.'"
Judging from Ware's statements in the article, he has seen enough shit-- enough to need a break, anyway: "You lose touch with life. It sounds trite, but I need to find humanity again a little bit. In so many ways, war casts a shadow across you that will never leave, dark places seen that can never be forgotten. When you get to the point where you come home from a bombing, realize what’s on the soles of your shoes, and can wipe it off without a second thought — it takes its toll. I was on the verge of becoming irretrievable."
Ware's conclusions on the Iraq war (that this is but the calm before the storm and that any withdrawal of US forces will immediately turn into Saigon 1975 and horrific bloodshed) might not be especially welcome in this community, but only a fool would completely discount what he has to say. Ware "shudders at the idea of massive American troop withdrawals. Horrific genocide, he predicts; worse than Bosnia. 'John McCain said, ‘The war’s going so well, so why stop now?’ I say it’s going so badly that we have to pay the price to prevent what’s to come.'"
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Ware's greatest moment was his interview with Wolf Blitzer on March 27, 2007. Sen. John McCain had just visited a Baghdad market surrounded by extraordinary layers of security and he told Blitzer that "there are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods today... That's where you oughta catch up on things, Wolf. Gen. Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee. I think you oughta catch up."
When Wolf asked Ware for his assessment of McCain's claims, Ware gave the ultimate journalistic smack-down (other than literally throwing a shoe, that is): "Well, I'd certainly like to bring Sen. McCain up to speed... Sen. McCain's credibility now on Iraq... is now been left out hanging to dry. To suggest [chuckling] that there's any neighborhood in this city where an American can walk freely is ludicrous! I'd love Sen. McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is and he and I can go for a stroll. And to think that David, Gen. David Petraeus travels this city in an unarmed humvee? I mean, in the hour since Sen. McCain said this I've spoken to some military sources and there was laughter down the line. I mean, certainly the general travels in a humvee, there's multiple humvees around it, heavily armed, there's attack helicopters, predator drones, sniper teams, all sorts of layers of protection. So no, Sen. McCain is waaay off base on this one... I don't know what part of Neverland Sen. McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad."
Can't you just feel the sarcasm dripping from every word? Can't you just hear the complete disdain Ware has in his voice for McCain's "ludicrous" fairy-tales? That is the job of journalists, to tell the truth. Not to hedge with false equivalencies or "he said, she said" for fear offending one side or the other, but instead to pursue the truth no matter which side it falls on. It means calling bullshit on politicians when you catch them lying through their gorram teeth. Is that really so hard for today's pampered and well-groomed cable news "journalists" to get through their heads? Just do your jobs, tell the truth.
Ware would probably laugh at such sentimental notions. But one does not do what Ware does with as little thanks as he gets unless he is driven--driven to uncover the truth at any cost, not because the truth is pleasant or because knowing it will "set you free," but because the truth is worth knowing, it is all that is worth knowing, because we have seen the results of a "non-reality-based" foreign policy these last 8 years. It is the stories that must be told about the realities of wars that most Americans would prefer to remain blissfully ignorant of.
Contrary to conservative whining, the problem with American journalism isn't that there are too many like Michael Ware, it's that there are precious few. So to Michael Ware, thanks. Take care of yourself and keep fighting the good fight.