Iraqi Correspondent for McClatchy -- Back in Baghdad After Getting Award in U.S. -- Reflects on Her Trip

By: E&P Staff In late-October, Sahar Issa was one of six Iraqi staffers for McClatchy based in its Baghdad bureau awarded the International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award. She was the only one of the six to attend the award dinners in New York and Los Angeles, and the poignant words in her acceptance speech were quoted at length in a New York Times editorial later that week.

Now she is back in Baghdad where she has posted a few reflections on her trip at the Iraqi staffers' Inside Iraq blog. (E&P has been reprinting items from that blog, written by Sahar and others, since last winter.)
Here is her latest account. The blog is at www.mcclatchydc.com.
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I am HOME! I missed everything; my family, my colleagues... even my table!

My trip to the U.S was like a whirl wind! It was short and to the point and I came home with a better understanding of what areas need to be covered for the regular American to better understand the situation in Iraq.

I was greatly surprised that most people didn't have an inkling of what Iraq is - was. I would have thought that as the U.S was at war in Iraq, the regular American would have some idea of what Iraq had, and thus would be better equipped to assess the loss that resulted from this war - but I found that not very many people - amongst those that I met, at least, had any clear Idea of the Iraqi society, and what the war has cost the country, in terms of how it affected our education system, our healthcare, services and infra structure. And although they were aware of the statistics of the casualties lost as a result of the collapse in the security system, the figures were so high as to become surreal - they acknowledged them in their minds but couldn't actually feel them in their hearts.

Each and every person I met was compassionate and supportive - so much so that I am at a loss - if people felt like that, why isn't there an outcy so loud that policy makers have no choice but to stop and listen?? Stop to reconsider and ask themselves the questions that need to be asked at this late stage: "What can we do to ammend the mess we created?

"We cannot go back in time to save the hundreds of thousands who died senslessly - but how to save the rest?

"What can we do not only to stop but to mend the decomposition that has occured in this stable society as a result of a war we chose to wage?

"How can we secure the borders after we decommissioned the former Iraqi Army? After all what's the use of going after al-Qaeda pockets inside the country - when the borders are open to them? Not only to them, but to any who wish to walk in and implement whatever agenda they have?"

And numerous, numerous questions that need to be asked - and answered.

Isn't it time?

Or must we lose more sons, more brothers, husbands and fathers and win nothing but heartbreak and a destroyed country?