Michael Ware Appreciation Thread

[Coexist]

Since a few months into the Iraq/Afghanistan conflict, I have often heard one voice, or one name in the stories that impress me most for their honesty and truthfulness. Michael Ware.

Not that I don't still love and respect Christiane Amanpour - but Mr. Ware, being in the thick of it constantly, has no time for the spin and fake balance of stateside and green zone journalists.

This is a collection of his quotes, videos and articles for you to enjoy - for those who don't know who he is, it will be worth your time to check these out:

- Ware was asked by one member of the studio audience if the situation in Iraq has improved over the course of the last three years. Ware responded, "It just gets worse and worse. It's a downward spiral. So far, I regret to say this deeply within my heart, but so far, the only winners of this war, have been Al Qaeda and Iran." Source

- Ware's response to our esteemed President' remarks to Blitzer that he "rejects the notion that is in civil war" and that he "can’t learn it from the newscasts" and instead trusts "the commanders on the ground" for their assessments. Soledad O’Brien, sitting in for Paula Zahn, asks Baghdad Correspondent Michael Ware how he perceives the situation on the ground. Ware, who always tells it like it is, finds it laughable that Bush cites General Casey and Ambassador Khalilzad as reliable sources for honest assessments, saying that: "These are men who could not be more divorced from the Iraqi reality.

Ware (on people who believe the above): "They very much live within a bubble. Be it physically within the Green Zone or be it within the bubble of heavy US protection. This is true even for their advisors, and for the commanders and the American soldiers….It’s very different than living amongst ." So, instead of listening to people like Ware who are actually embedded with the Iraqi people themselves, the President relies on the judgment of military commanders and US ambassadors who travel with Secret Service-like protection within the fortified ‘Green Zone’. Of course Casey and Khalilzad — and, thus, President Bush — don’t see civil war; they’re all out of touch with the true "Iraqi reality". How can the President possibly maintain that Iraq is not in civil war even in the face of US Military reports like this? Hear no civil war, see no civil war, speak no civil war, I guess..?"
Video Clip of the above

- WARE: Well, this is one of the most fascinating things about it. I mean, since the inception of this war, we have seen al Qaeda global jihad introduced to a country where it never exists. And like a cancer, once one cell appears, it begins to metastasize.

So what we have seen throughout the country, but particularly in Ramadi, is al Qaeda, through its money, its motivation, its tactic, its ideology, hijack the local fight. So in Ramadi, it's actually the al Qaeda front line.

Al Qaeda dominates all the other groups so effectively that it is in charge. So, this is where American Marines and soldiers go face to face every day with the very organization that attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and yet it seems that they're being forced to do so under-resourced and with one arm tied behind -- behind their back -- Miles. Source w/video link

- Secretary Rice is so far from that reality that she couldn't possibly hope to understand it. Certainly not from fleeting visits to an artificial bubble like the green zone, Wolf? Source w/video link

- (on the new NIE claiming that the war in Iraq has made us less safe) "well, in terms of the contents of the report, Wolf, it is absolutely right, the facts outlined in that document have been self-evident on the ground here, at least since 2004." Video

- Among men whom I would meet in 2003, and I would say, "What will it take for you to put down your weapons? What will end this conflict?," and their answer , "For the Americans to leave." A year later, I asked one of those same men: "You once said to me if the Americans left, your war was over. What now, if the Americans leave, what will you do?" He looked at me straight back and said, "If the Americans leave now, I must follow them wherever they go." Every day this war continues, more and more Iraqis join the jihad, the holy war, and that is a global fight.

So even if we can hold the border insurgency at bay in Iraq, ... even if the American military could start to see some kind of progress in its fight here in Iraq, the longer this fight goes on in almost any form, the more America loses in the sense that its enemy grows larger and stronger. Source

- "I want those who say we aren't reporting the good news to come and live one day in Iraq as an Iraqi and I challenge them to repeat those opinions," he continues. "It's easy to opine from an ivory tower when you're safe at home. It's much harder to do so when you're on the ground." He says that, if anything, much of the coverage doesn't accurately reflect the harsh realities that take place every day. "The loss of American lives becomes a one paragraph brief in the world section," says Ware. "It takes carnage of cataclysmic proportions to break into the news cycle. We've become immune or numbed to the body count. We have come to accept the horror from Iraq as normal. Our measures of success have been deeply skewed by the reality of the situation." Source

- "Staying the course will only strengthen America's enemies" Source video (note the lovely comments)

- Michael Ware: Well, I mean, this really is the story. This is where history is unfolding before our very eyes, and, for better or for worse, I've been given a front-row ticket to watch this slow-motion train wreck. This is going to be impacting on all of us, and, I'm sad to say, even our kids, for years to come. So, I want to be here, I want to understand it, I want to be able to tell others about it. Source

- "this is civil war, it is akin to ethnic cleansing."Source w/video

- So it can be anything from that to being held hostage by Saddam's Fedayeen militia, which happened to me during the war very briefly, having a gun to your head, sitting in a room with a group of people, having someone walk in and in a language you don't understand ask for permission to execute you. Then a debate goes on about the relative merits of whacking you or not, and you don't learn this until, or if, you walk out the room and your translator decides to tell you about it.

The other thing is the American war machine. I don't know how many times I've nearly been killed by the Americans, be it from ordnance falling from the sky, I've had a tank leap out of a ditch and ambush me, I've had soldiers shooting at me. So, hell and back can be all sorts of things. It's body and soul. Source

- (regarding a tape he was given showing suicide bombers) Now, apart from the disturbing images, the most difficult aspect of that whole experience for me is this - that the al-Qa'ida central committee, the shura, the group of leaders, physically sat around and discussed me by name before they gave that to me. That's not entirely comfortable, having al-Qa'ida talk about you personally, weighing up your relative merits and then deciding to hand you something very, very special, in their eyes. Source

From Bill Maher: More bad news from the media, but anyway, I thank you so much for doing this, I thank you for being there. I have to tell you something: they say there are no Edward R. Murrows — there sure are: you're one of them, Michael Ware.

Thank you, Mr. Ware, for your bravery and your honest reporting - good, bad or ugly - the truth will always be the truth.

[leftchick]

1. I don't agree with his assessment of al-Qaeda in Iraq

I do not believe it is of the magnitude he suggests. I believe it is Iraq sectarian divisions driving the civil war along US trained death squads in the Iraqi Police. Buying into al-Qaeda in Iraq justifies the US notion of "fighting them there" and Iraq being the central front in the war on terror which is total BS.

Otherwise I admire his reporting and candor as well.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Thanks for this post! May I ask if anyone finds Michael one sexy man?

I do.

[Connie_Corleone]

4. Love the crooked nose.

[Little Star]

5. ummm hummm. He reeks of testosterone!

[verse18]

6. He's hot.

grrrrrrrrrrr

ETA-He's a good reporter, too.

[burythehatchet]

3. A face Picasso would love