They never defeated the Iraqi army

From Detroit to Hindu Kush

But the new news sources seem to be more opinionated?

KR: There’s been an explosion of information, because of the internet and because of the cable channels, like CNN and Al-Jazeera. But remember ten years ago, when they said the big American media were too much of a filter, and that we needed a “new world information order” to get other voices in. Now, anybody with a phone line and a laptop computer can read directly what is being reported by the Arabic press, the Iranian news agency, what’s on Al-Jazeera.

That’s true from the consumer point of view: that you can tap into different sources. But it seems that many of the new producers have more, not less, filters on than the old sources?

KR: Even as we get all this new media out there, more and more people are starting to rely on places like the New York Times, the Washington Post and the established news agencies in order to kind of cut through all the bullshit, the back and forth, the hype and the spin. They actually rely more on us. You would think that with the internet the sales of the Washington Post would go down during something like the Iraq war. In fact it’s the exact opposite: for the printed newspaper, the sales went up during the war. I think that’s because there is so much crap out there – that people just feel, in the end of the day: “this is the quality paper I have trusted for years, let me see what they have to say”. The quality papers have not seen any fall of in readership because of the explosion of cable, the internet and everything else, in fact they have seen an increase! I just find that fascinating because everybody thought we were going to be out of our jobs in ten years once the internet was invented. There is more and more desire to have quality stuff.

One last thing: in your book you mentioned some of your colleagues carried guns in Somalia – but during the Iraq war in spring, there was a huge uproar among American journalists because Geraldo Rivera [from Fox News, ed.] carried one there?

KR: The thing was: he waved it on camera and said something like “I’m gonna shoot the son of a bitch myself!” Most of the reporters and TV-people I knew in Somalia who had weapons were keeping them for self protection. But I knew a lot of journalists in Cambodia who bought AK-47s, and they were keeping them for fun, really. Because a lot of journalists in war zones, they’re like boys with toys. Once you’re suddenly in a place where you can buy an AK-47 for 20 bucks, then you take one. They like to dress up in the combat gear: I saw it in Timor, in Cambodia, Somalia – even in Iraq: there were all these journalists walking around with full US combat gear on. It’s some kind of macho fantasy.

But I think it’s dangerous, dressing like the army units you’re covering. I wore the same thing every day in Iraq: white shirt and blue jeans. I never wore a flak jacket, even though we were supposed to. My attitude is: I am a journalist, not a soldier. If they’re shooting I’m going in the opposite direction. So not wearing the flak jacket made me mentally operate a lot safer. Secondly, if I walk around in a camouflage army-jacket and a helmet – then a sniper 200 meters away is not going to make the difference. I am a target. But if I walk around in blue jeans and a white shirt it’s like saying: “Hey, I am not threatening you, Mr. Iraqi sniper. I am not a threat to you”.

How quickly does the violence around you become normal?

KR: As I said in the book, I very fast became an expert in flying into Mogadishu and negotiating how many machine gun carrying guards I would need. Human beings have an amazing capacity to adapt to whatever the circumstances. And that’s what you find in these war zones.

Is that capacity, the ease with which you get accustomed to violence, is that also why whole countries slide into something chaotic, where everyone just goes along with it?

KR: That’s right. That’s one of the things I have found was the most amazing about being in all these places: it’s how people adapted to the most chaotic conditions imaginable. In the end of the day: life has to go on. No matter how bad things get, you still have to get up in the morning, you still have to get something to eat, and you have to find some way to make money, you have to worry about your family. In the end of the day: the basic things are all the same whether you’re in Paris, New York, Kabul or Basra. Human beings are the same. And if surviving and getting something to eat means picking up a gun to defend myself to go out there, then a person will do that.

In Iraq I was living in a car for three weeks, literally living in car. We ran out of food and fuel: I became an expert on finding out where gas stations used to be, and go into the ground, break into the tanks and siphon the gasoline out. I didn’t know how to do any of this, but when you have to you do it. In Afghanistan I was on horse back for eight hours crossing a mountain, the [Hindu Kush], in a blizzard – and I’m from Detroit, I have never been on a fucking horse in my life! [laughs]

But don’t call me a war correspondent though: I’m just a reporter. You get sent to do wars and you adapt. I don’t think anybody should be a specialist in war. I have met photographers who “only do wars”, and they’ve been “warped”. They sort of get off, macho, on war. I don’t get off on war. I think it’s terrible. This is why I want to cover it, to show people how terrible it is.

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