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REPORTING FROM THE DANGER ZONE
Written by Maria Elena Salinas   
Sunday, February 05 2006
 
When I first heard about the incident on that early Sunday morning, it sent chills down my spine. ABC anchor Bob Woodruff and veteran cameraman Doug Vogt had been seriously injured when the military vehicle they were in hit a bomb north of Baghdad. As a journalist, your first reaction when you hear a story like that is concern for their well-being. You hope and pray that the injuries will not be life- threatening. But then come the feelings of frustration and anger. Journalists have to be independent eyewitnesses to a story like the war in Iraq in order to report the truth. For the American people, there is much at stake there: security, our international image, billions of dollars, oil and, most importantly, the lives of thousands of American troops. It is very frustrating, though, that in order to do your job as a journalist, you must risk your life. I can tell you firsthand that the risks of reporting from a danger zone are not the first things that come into your mind when you are there. You just want to make sure you have the best images you can possibly get, and that you look beyond the periodical summaries provided by the military. That is what my crew and I did in April 2003. A few days after the infamous statue of Saddam Hussein was torn down, we were reporting from the streets of Baghdad. Our news credentials said "Unilateral." "That means I won't have to be the one who calls your husband when you get shot in the head," the U.S. military spokesman in Kuwait told me after we insisted on crossing the border into Iraq with or without the military's help. "You are on your own," he said. And on our own, cameramen Angel Matos and Herman Ulloa, producer Margarita Rabin and I went into the war zone with what we felt were all the necessary precautions: food, water, generators, flashlights, satellite phones, gas masks, helmets and bulletproof vests. But in the weeks following what President Bush called the "end of major combat operation," there seemed to be more chaos than danger in the streets of Baghdad. Looking back, we probably took some unnecessary risks. Like the time we followed the lead of an informant, which took us to a remote Iraqi military training center where a handful of people were digging up bodies from a mass grave. Or the day we ventured into Saddr City -- previously known as Saddam City -- when not even the U.S. military had entered the area. But then again, while other journalists were reporting on the riches found in Saddam's palaces, we were showing our viewers what embedded journalists had not had access to: anarchy, confusion, the anger of the Iraqi people, civilian casualties in hospitals, the children of war. Being embedded with the 4th Infantry Division did not keep Woodruff and Vogt from danger. They ran the same risk that everyone in Iraq faces right now, whether they are American troops, Iraqi soldiers, political figures, foreign contractors or civilians. It is ironic that the story Woodruff was working on investigated whether the Iraqi soldiers are able to make it on their own, according to his co-anchor, Elizabeth Vargas. Just two days later, President Bush appeared during the State of the Union address, saying he is positive about the progress in Iraq. Being a war correspondent is a dangerous job. Everyone who takes on the assignment is aware of the risks. But the importance of bringing home the real story for the viewers, readers or listeners outweighs the fear factor. However, the Iraq War is not your conventional war with conventional weapons. You don't know when the enemy will strike, how the blow will come or who the enemy really is. Taking on this assignment is like playing Russian roulette. According to Reporters Without Borders, 79 journalists have died in Iraq since the war began in 2003, 35 have been kidnapped, and two are currently missing. In contrast, 63 journalists were killed in the two-decade-long Vietnam War. It is a menial number when you compare it with the amount of troops who have lost their lives. Woodruff and Vogt are two more people who have become collateral damage. Just like thousands more, they are the victims of a war that has lost its course. They just happen to be lucky enough to have survived to tell their story.