Centerpieces

As journalists reporting on the war in Iraq, Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Martha Raddatz speak from experience. Chandrasekaran spent almost two years there.  Raddatz is about to make her 14th trip to the war zone. They have interviewed ground troops, commanders and civilians.

But beyond their daily reporting, they say, there are still so many more stories to tell.

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The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family, by Martha Raddatz Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Poynter receives a small cut as an Amazon affiliate.)

Chandrasekaran, national editor of The Washington Post and author of "Imperial Life in the Emerald City," and Raddatz, chief White House correspondent for ABC News and author of "The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family," detailed these stories to a crowd of about 200 people Saturday at The Poynter Institute.

During the "Community Conversation," as Poynter called the event, Chandrasekaran and Raddatz fielded questions from the audience about their experiences as journalists covering the war in Iraq and U.S. policy. Bob Steele, the Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values, moderated the event.

Reporting from the Emerald City

Prior to writing his book, Chandrasekaran served as bureau chief in Baghdad, Cairo and Southeast Asia, covering the war in Afghanistan. Through his everyday coverage of Iraq, he found a wealth of stories within the Baghdad neighborhood known as the Green Zone.

Home to headquarters of American operations in Iraq, the Green Zone Chandrasekaran covered was cut off from the realities of war. Americans, he said, were lavished with luxuries and distracted from their assigned task of reconstructing Iraq. The stories he discovered there involved not just the military, but civilian contractors and government officials.   

"Through my everyday coverage, it became clear to me that there was a broader story to be told about the civilian side of the American effort to transform Iraq into a stable place. I felt that what was occurring in the Green Zone was equally important," said Chandrasekaran. "As things in Iraq began to take a turn for the worse, it became clear to me that the decisions that were made by the civilians were just as important as some of the decisions made by the Pentagon."

Chandrasekaran said he encountered several obstacles in his attempts to make sense of these decisions, particularly when trying to get past security and talk to the soldiers in the Green Zone.

"Every trip we made from our bureau housing compound was rolling that roulette wheel," said Chandrasekaran. "You didn’t know if you were going to be followed, ambushed, shot at." He also had difficulty operating within the Green Zone. At one point, he recalls having to show his passport instead of his press badge so that he could gain access to certain areas within the zone. Many Americans, he said, did not welcome him as a reporter trying to gain access to the areas where soldiers congregated.

Being of Indian descent, he said, sometimes helped outside the Green Zone. Chandrasekaran believes he raised less suspicion among some Iraqis than a light-skinned person would. If he wore Iraqi clothing and kept his mouth shut, he said, he could pass as a man from Basra.

But Chandrasekaran never escaped questioning from Americans who were skeptical about his motives. Some readers called him unpatriotic for exposing the pitfalls of Americans in the Green Zone, while others criticized him for questioning the Bush administration’s policies.

When government officials cite intelligence to justify a decision, journalists need to find out if that information is based on objective reporting, or if it's been skewed by one person’s view, Chandrasekaran said.

He wants to see more reporting on where the Iraqi war is headed six months or a year from now.

"I want to know what's really happening in mixed Sunni-Shiite villages to the north and south of Baghdad. What are the population movements that are taking place there? What's happening on the ground between various competing tribal, religious and ethnic groups? I want to know what's really happening in Fallujah," Chandrasekaran said.

Jim Stem/Poynter Martha Raddatz of ABC News and Rajiv Chandrasekaran of The Washington Post at Poynter's Community Conversation Saturday, July 28.

"We laid rubble to that city in the fall of 2004 to deny the terrorists sanctuary. Who's really back there? I don't feel like we have any sense of what is really happening on the ground outside of Baghdad. And even in Baghdad, we get a sense of what's happening in certain parts of the city and not others. What are the real dynamics of the Madhi Army militia in Sadr City today? Nobody has really told that story."

A 'long road' toward sacrifice

Raddatz agrees that not enough stories are being told about the actual people behind the policies.

Jim Stem/Poynter Martha Raddatz of ABC News

"There have been so many marvelous books written about policy, but I really felt like we hadn’t really been in the nitty gritty. I started writing the book like a journalist but I realized I had gotten such great detail from the soldiers that I could write it real time, and talked to people there. I just really wanted people to be on the ground."

Raddatz said she felt compelled to go beyond her reporting about the gunfire in Sadr City of April 4, 2004, and to talk to the families of the First Calvary Division platoon that had been involved.

The platoon was supposed to be in Sadr City on a peacekeeping mission, yet the unexpected act of sectarian violence that day killed eight soldiers -- including Casey Sheehan, son of Cindy Sheehan, who later gained national attention as an anti-war activist -- and wounded more than 60. The day became known as Black Sunday.

"How could you not go visit the families and go back and forth and talk to them about it?" Raddatz asked. "It’s the struggle of the families and the sacrifice of the families that those of us who know no one in the military can’t understand."

White House briefings can’t make people understand the reality of war either, Raddatz said. As a White House correspondent, Raddatz said she constantly tries to get beyond the briefings and report on what’s really taking place in Iraq.

She noted that except for briefings, she is hardly ever at the White House. Instead, she prefers to step outside and talk to people who are being affected by the decisions made there. It is while in the war zone, and while talking to soldiers' families, that she gathers the most information.

Deciding to turn the wealth of stories she gathered about Black Sunday into a book seemed like the most logical answer.

"The book is not a bad thing to save it for," Raddatz said. "It's incredibly powerful in this larger message that you couldn't report on a day-to-day basis. It's not like the book is the stepchild of journalism. It's a powerful, powerful tool."

At times, she wanted to return to Sadr City, but it was too dangerous. What she sees as a journalist, she said, pales in comparison to what the soldiers encounter on a day-to-day basis in such places.

Jim Stem/Poynter Martha Raddatz of ABC News and Rajiv Chandrasekaran of The Washington Post at The Poynter Institute's Community Conversation on Saturday, July 28.

Her hope is that by reporting and writing about the tragedies abroad, she can educate the public as to what is taking place there. To do so, she tried to make her book readable for those with little knowledge about the war.

"It breaks my heart that so few Americans are connected to this war," Raddatz said. "I believe at the beginning the administration wanted us to go shopping and all go to Disneyland, but it has backfired because Americans really don't understand the complexities of this war … What have we done as a country to support our troops? What have we done to sacrifice? We've watched horrible videos on TV. That’s sacrifice?"

Going to Iraq, she said, is one way she personally can make a sacrifice. "Every day we all try to do the best we can," she said. "I keep going to Iraq because I want to add value."