The untold story of Iraq

Callimachus (I always wonder which Callimachus he named himself after) of Done With Mirrors has nothing but contempt for NYT reporter Dexter Filkins and his reports of grave danger in Iraq, but he expresses it much more effectively by letting Kat tell her story. Kat is 5 feet tall, 89 pounds and worked for two years for a contractor in Iraq without the elaborate security precautions Filkins talks about and lived to tell the tale with nary a hair-raising experience to show.

All in all, I'm really thankful that Dexter was able to share his experience with the rest of the press. It's difficult to live in a hardened bunker, not going out to do your job, and relying on others not too skillfully chosen to do your job for you. I can almost taste the fear as he describes it, and my first response is certainly to slap him and his co-hibernators on the back for their selfless display of courage, innovation, and integrity in doing their job.

I'm sure that Dexter will remember me and all of the other contractors and civilians who worked in Iraq slightly shorted of all the elaborate defence mechanisms dedicated to those in his profession. I'm sure he could appreciate the depth to which one of my rather small size five appendages could install itself within his and his cohort's posterior sections. It would be pleasurable to me at any time to let him accompany myself on one of our less important or threatening rides to a place of little or no interest to anyone but ourselves. Thank goodness for the New York Times.

Kat had appeared before at Done With Mirrors to talk about her work in Iraq. Must reads if you want a different perspective on what is really going on over there.