Chicago’s promoter’s ordinance: What the city wants, the city gets?
Published on 5/9/08
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Somehow, the word embedded has become synonymous with quality when it comes to journalism in Iraq. Ride along with the troops and watch as the war unfolds. There’s validity to that, but as independent journalist Jamail proves in his new book, subtitled Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, there is also value in eluding the American military’s watchful eye.
Jamail took to the streets of Iraq in 2003, and his reports have run in The Nation, London’s Guardian and progressive radio shows like Democracy Now! He tells of families killed, mosques destroyed and communities rent asunder. Where the military sees “insurgents,” he sees resistance movements. He also tells of humanitarian work—the blood drives held in mosques and the makeshift hospitals built in war zones.
At times the writing is a little more introspective than we’d like—his notes on his personal experience are far less riveting than his more objective accounts—but they hardly stand in the way. And though filled with “news” reports of the war, much of the material here is years old. But Jamail is able to keep things in historical perspective (e.g., likening the conditions in Fallujah to Sarajevo), which allows his reporting to take on a timeless air.
Haymarket Books
Tue, Oct 23, 07, at 1:02pm
We have also added a second event with Dahr Jamail:
7pm, Oct. 27th
University of Illinois-Chicago
Lecture Center A1
750 South Halsted
with special guests
Eugene Cherry
of Iraq Veterans Against the War*
Juan Torres
of Gold Star Families for Peace*
(*for id only)
Sponsored by
Haymarket Books and In These Times
Endorsed by
American Friends Service Committee, Chicago Area CodePINK and Eighth Day Center for Justice
Contact:
312-315-8476
scruggs48 (at) yahoo.com
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