An unprecedented account of the crisis inside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex after the devastating earthquake and tsunami. WATCH Β». What did the NFL know, and when did they know it? Get Our Newsletter. Follow Us. This was my third trip to Iraq, and the first time I felt I was never really there. I saw Iraq from a distance: from behind the confines of a four-inch bulletproof window; from the eighth floor of my hotel; from a chopper hovering feet above ground.
Iraq looks more striking and peaceful from above. We lived like thousands of private contractors in Iraq -- in isolation, barely crossing paths with ordinary Iraqis, walling ourselves off from the chaos, the car bombs, the poverty. We did this on purpose, to document life for over , private contractors that live "inside the wire.
For reporters trying to make sense of the place, most of Iraq is now out of bounds. We used to be able to stand on the streets of Fallujah and talk to Iraqis. We could sit at a restaurant in Tikrit and order a half chicken on rice while Iraqis looked on. It was brazen, perhaps, sometimes even dangerous, but it could be done.
That was for most of and up to February But that's all changed. In April we are clipped by the violence, restricted by the walls. And our reporting, especially for those of us making television, no longer includes spontaneous encounters with Iraqis or casually setting up a tripod on any given street.
What went wrong? And at what cost? October February This is the first time we didn't interview any Iraqis while in Iraq.
