When I do talks and presentations around the country, one question that nearly always comes up is, "Where can I go to to get more accurate information about the war?" The answer is simple, but it's not easy: Do your research! As I tell tell college audiences, the real value in writing papers for your classes has very little to do with the actual subject matter. I honestly don't know many people who are actually working in the fields they studied in school. So the the real benefit of doing research on a subject when you're in school lies in learning how to find, read, evaluate, and use information from a variety of sources. It takes time, creativity, and determination. I don't want to preach, but I consider doing this kind of research a a responsibility for citizens of a democracy. As your father or a teacher probably told you, "Along with rights come come responsibilities." You don't have to do it... but if you don't, you don't get to complain when you suddenly find find yourself living in something less than freedom.
In that vein, I encourage you to read, watch, and listen to as many different sources of fact and opinion as you can. Educate yourself by seeking out as much variety and diversity as you can find. Following is a list of sources that I've found interesting and thought-provoking. The list is necessarily incomplete, and if you find a good one, please don't hesitate to let me know. I'm continually educating myself, too!
Thanks to the internet, you can get news from almost any newspaper or newsmagazine on the planet. That alone will assure you of a variety of views, always a good thing. Following are some links to news organizations' sites.
The London Times First published in 1785, it has been regarded as Britain's newspaper of record for much of its history. Published by a subsidiary of the News Corporation group, headed by neo-conservative Rupert Murdoch. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/global/
Canadian newspapers: This site will give you links to 26 different papers from around the country. http://www.broadcast-live.com/newspapers/canadian.html
Al Jazeera, the Arab news outlet. You may think the bias here is so strong that reading their output would be a waste of time. Their site, however, claims, "We continue to cover all viewpoints with objectivity, integrity and balance." Very liberal, politically, for that part of the world, and I think it's vitally important to be aware of their perspective. This is the English version of the site: http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
Insight on the News web site, generally considered a conservative e-publication, produced in cooperation with the Washington Times. http://www.insightmag.com/ME2/Default.asp
US News & World Report generally considered to have a more right-of-center editorial point of view than Time or Newsweek. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/home.htm
Time Magazine generally considered a flagship liberal publication, published by AOL Time Warner Inc. The web site is produced in partnership with CNN. http://www.time.com/time/
GlobalSecurity.org describes itself as a public policy organization, and says it's "the leading source of background information and developing news stories in the fields of defense, space, intelligence, WMD, and homeland security." They've got a good reputation as a trusted source of military information. Their source of income is online advertising, and they list "News Reporters" as an important target audience, so you'll likely find some "raw" news here. http://www.globalsecurity.org/index.html
The Christian Science Monitor Not a church periodical, it's a highly regarded newspaper (7 Pulitzer prizes so far), published by the First Church of Christ, Scientist, and a very independent publication. As their site states, "the Monitor does not rely primarily on wire services, like AP and Reuters, for its international coverage. We have writers based in 11 countries... as well as throughout the U.S. We're... devoid of the corporate allegiances and pressures that critics say too often skew today's media." Widely respected for its objectivity, integrity, and for avoiding the sensational, the Monitor covers many stories under-reported or absent from other papers. http://www.csmonitor.com/
News media are not the only sources of valuable information. Here are a couple of excellent (by which I mean extensively researched, and well reported) articles, among those which I referred to in the book's final chapter.
Vanity Fair April, 2005 "Oh, What a Lucrative War"
Fortune Magazine April, 2005 "The Truth about Halliburton"
Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror by Richard A. Clarke
Clarke is the ultimate Washington Insider, having served as a Counter-terrorism advisor to presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush, and he's got plenty to say about how each of them reacted, or didn't react, to the threat.
Escape in Iraq: The Thomas Hamill Story by Thomas Hamill and Paul T. Brown
This is a story that makes civilian contractors in Iraq think twice. Hamill was like a lot of the guys and gals I knew from KBR...a Mississippi truck driver who "joined up" for the money. He was captured and held by insurgents for 24 days, until he escaped. A remarkable story.
The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq by John Crawford
Crawford was a reservist called to Iraq, just like the guys and gals I knew there...so the book is slightly mis-titled, since he, like all of them, volunteered. His account is wildly different from mine, because he had a wildly different experience, as a soldier in Baghdad. But if you're willing to see the war through the eyes of a very disillusioned man, complete with the vulgarity and lewdness sometimes expressed by young men, I think you'll find it a very illuminating read.
Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army by Kayla Williams and Michael E. Staub
If you found the chapter I call "Mascara and Camouflage" interesting, this book won't disappoint you. Williams was in military intelligence, having learned Arabic in the army. Her "voice" is smart, sassy, unique, and again, pretty rough.
The Secret History of the Iraq War by Yossef Bodansky
Bodansky is a former director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, and he wrote about Islamists training to use hijacked airliners in suicide operations against American and Western targets in 1992, long before the world was talking about Islamic terrorism. That, and his extensive background, buys him a lot of credibility. The knock on the book is that he doesn't identify a lot of his sources, which, in the academic world, buys you a lot of criticism.
They Just Don't Get it: How Washington is Still Compromising Your Safety--and What You Can Do About It
by Colonel David Hunt
This one isn't about Iraq, per se. But a lot of people, myself included, are seeing what's going on in the Middle East, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, and Indonesia as part of a whole. A U.S. Army veteran for nearly thirty years, Hunt's been neck-deep in what he calls World War III for a long time. He's trained the FBI and Special Forces in counter terrorism tactics, and served as security adviser to six different Olympic Games. He says that even after the attacks on our country and on Americans around the world, (and they started long before 9/11) the people charged with protecting us—the politicians and the bureaucrats in the military and in intelligence—still aren’t getting the job done. We’re still not equipped--militarily, intelligence-wise, or in our resolve as a nation, to win the war on terror. Hunt details where we've gone wrong, and more to the point, he shows us what changes we can make—as individual citizens, as a government, and as a military power—in order to win the war on terror and ensure our survival. A fascinating, compelling, and I think a very important book.
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