"Situations of War"

I just came across this interview with Giuliana Sgrena, that Italian journalist who was accidentally shot at (we hope and believe) by American soldiers after she was released from her Iraqi kidnappers last February (one of her Italian escorts was killed if I remember correctly). The article, which I found on Womens eNews, says that she's back to the front lines, this time in Kabul, Afghanistan ... anyway, I like what she says about war journalism:

"I refuse to be a war correspondent," she said. "I am not a reporter of war; I report on situations of war. I reject this because I hope in these countries there will one day be peace. These are countries which I am interested in and I hope to go back to them when there is peace."

Lord, how many times at j-school did they truck in "war correspondents" to regale us with their stories of imprisonment and unexploded mines in Afghanistan and Iraq. People were drooling to go to Iraq ... I knew an editor during my short stint at the RNC Convention last year as the AP's Head Coffee Maker and Trash Collector (I am in no way exaggerating btw although I did get to write a couple of stories -- and at least I got paid $20 an hour, unlike the unpaid interns from Northwestern, HAHAHHA! Plus I now have Michael Moore's cell phone number) who threatened to quit the AP in order to finagle his way into a Baghdad posting ... it worked.

People are obsessed with covering war. There's glory to be had I suppose. I know the feeling, I'm not going to lie. But those countries will completely fall off our radars as soon as the U.S. loses interest in that region ... I mean, Afghanistan isn't the glory post it once was, for example. And who ever begs to report on Vietnam? I suppose if there isn't a war there isn't a country.