Reports From Our Fellows Archives

Dispatches From Iraq
The Chaos of Post-War Iraq

Elaine Widner ’98, a broadcast freelancer, has been to Baghdad three times this year—in April, July, and October—doing work for ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight,” and “Nightline.”

Widner, right, listens up

I’ve never felt more threatened in Baghdad than I have since the war. In my opinion it is now more dangerous than at any other time, including during the war. I fear the chaos and consequences of a post-war Iraq will be with us for a long time to come.

I spent the buildup and the actual “shock and awe” of the war itself embedded in the Kuwait City Sheraton. I was doing sound and editing for ABC when I was asked if I’d be willing to go into Baghdad. It was only a week after Saddam’s statue had come tumbling down in Firdos Square, and after spending the entire war in the relative safety of Kuwait City, I was curious to see how Baghdad looked after “liberation”. I also wanted to see for myself the mood of the Iraqi people and I was hoping to reconnect with old Iraqi colleagues.

I had been lucky on my last two trips in and out of Baghdad. Other than a blown tire that was fairly quickly repaired by four or five Iraqi drivers, I came and went without incident. In the past the biggest concern driving the Amman-Baghdad road was whether or not your Jordanian driver would stay awake. And it was never a big deal to be a lone car on the highway. Nowadays, there are stretches of road where, if you’re prudent, you make sure to have your flak jacket on and that you are part of a convoy.

In the past when my colleague and I were out shooting, we would naturally draw a crowd. After all, in their eyes we were something akin to a circus sideshow. What else could one make of two Western women, one blonde and wielding a microphone on a long pole, the other barely five feet tall and carrying around a 30-pound television camera and neither of us wearing the traditional abaya? They’d never seen anything quite like it, yet I never felt threatened in any way. Nowadays I am always vigilant when I am on the streets and particularly when I am around the U.S. military. Rather than having a sense of protection around the soldiers, I feel more vulnerable. It makes me nervous to get pinned within or alongside one of their convoys, and I never want to be on the streets after dark for fear that some nervous, trigger-happy young soldier may make a mistake.