5 comments about Friendly Fire: The Remarkable Story of a Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq, Rescued by an Italian Secret Service Agent, and Shot by U.S. Forces.

1. Like many other hostage tales, there are moments of true human interaction between the hostage and her captors in this book. Interestingly enough, but not surprisingly, some of these moments occur during various soccer matches that are watched by the kidnappers. Although Sgrena is anything but a sports fan, her Italian nationality gives her credence if only because of one of the kidnappers obsession with Italian soccer. She describes her discussions of religion and non-belief with the mujaheedin holding her and their difficulty in understanding her relationship to her unmarried longtime partner. Unlike other hostage tales, especially the recent story by US journalist taken hostage Jill Carroll, Sgrena refuses to accept the rationale of the occupiers and insists thgoughout the text that it is the occupation that is the primary culprit in Iraq, not the resistance. The descriptions of the aforementioned conversations reminds the reader of the contradictory nature of the human condition--warriors able to hold a woman prisoner yet curious enought of this person from another culture to converse with her and debate, even though their commanders and clerics might not approve.
   
   As regards Sgrena's thoughts on Iraq, it is her contention that the fighters against the occupiers are primarily composed of two elements: the nationalist insurgency and the jihadists. Sgrena states that the jihadists want the US in Iraq because it gives them a front in their war on the infidels, while the insurgency wants the US and other occupation troops out so they can get on with their lives. As I write this review, the news broadcasts are reporting on a demonstration of hundreds of thousands against the US occupation of Iraq and the Israeli war on Lebanon in Baghdad. The primary component of this demonstration were Shia Iraqis that support Muqtada al-Sadr. According to the news report, US officials claim to be concerned that this massive show of strength by these Shia Iraqis could provoke attacks on them by members of the Sunni community in Iraq. While there may be some truth to this possibility, the fact that the US command is expressing concern is so transparent as to be laughable. After all, the US military and intelligence have certainly killed more of Sadr's supporters than their fellow Iraqis have. It is more likely that the US is concerned that the solidarity being expressed across religious lines and across the Arab world for the resistance of Hezbollah to Israel's onslaught will become the dominant current in Iraq. If that occurred, the resistance to the occupation would be nearly universal among Iraqis. That would spell the end of not only the occupation, but of the jihadists as well.
   Of course, the Pentagon and White House (with approval from Congress) remains convinced that the situation can be remedied in favor of Washington via military means. Indeed, the commander of US Central Command, General Abizaid, went on record in early August stating that he could "imagine" the US military "winning" Baghdad. As Sgrena's book clarifies (once again), this imaginary scenario is nothing more than a pipe dream for the US generals and a nightmare for the Iraqis. As the occupation and its consequent mayhem continue no one is certain what the next phase will look like. The civil strife between various religious trends is but one facet of the aforementioned mayhem. Underlying it all is the continuing dismal state of most Iraqis' economic lives and the lack of any apparent future of peace.
   Sgrena's understanding of this desperate situation and Washington's fundamental role in creating and maintaining it are the subject of much of her commentary in the book. It is interspersed with a narrative describing the physical realities of her captivity and her means of dealing with the boredom, fear, and hopelessness that are part of any imprisonment. Her journalistic abilities are quite apparent in these descriptions--one feels that they know the characteristics of the room she spent her captivity almost as well if they had seen a walk-through video of it. Her discussion of the emotions she experienced are interwoven into her story in such a way that they become like the darkness of her mask that the kidnappers insist she wear at times of their choosing. Or the daylight that we assume will always be. They exist but they do not overwhelm. In fact, that is how Sgrena tells her story. Perhaps it is her journalistic detachment or perhaps it is the only manner in which she could write it down. No matter what the reason may be, it works. Friendly Fire is more than the tale of one hostage's ordeal and it is more than just another tract on the US-created debacle that is Iraq. It is not a cry for revenge, but a tempered statement on a nation's shattered psyche and an individual attempt to share a perspective influenced by her unforeseen role in that nation's history.



2. "Hostages are weapons of war, a powerful means of blackmail in an asymmetric conflict like that in Iraq. In two years of occupation, all foreigners have become the enemy; there's no longer any distinction between governments and those who oppose them..."(page 68)
   
   In November 2004 the United States launched an especially violent assault on the resistance stronghold of Falluja, laying siege to the city and creating a civilian refugee crisis. On the trail of this crisis, interviewing civilians, antiwar Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena found herself sucked into the war in a most unexpected way: One of the resistance groups kidnapped her.
   
   Sgrena's powerful book not only documents her personal drama as a hostage but reflects on the wider situation in Iraq that led to hers'--and many others'--kidnappings. She clearly explains why the "unbearable" living conditions feed into a general discontent that is (literally) violently stirred up by the presence of Coalition troops and their sledgehammer anti-insurgency tactics...tactics which almost led to her own death and did lead to the death of her liberator, Nicola Calipari.
   
   "What happened to me after my liberation, the car hit by "friendly fire", took me back to the real origins of the current situation in Iraq: the war. The violent fall of Saddam did not bring liberty, but the decline into barbarism of Mesopotamia, cradle of civilization of the Sumerians, the Assyrians and the Babylonians. This is the reality." (page 187)
   
   (Kudos to the translator and editor for producing a highly readable English account of the author's remarkable story and exceptional political insight.)



3. The journalist author of FRIENDLY FIRE reported under war conditions, was kidnapped, rescued by an Italian secret agent, then shot by U.S. forces. If her name sounds familiar, it's because her story was detailed on 60 Minutes and other world media, but no show could prove the punch and impact of her memoir FRIENDLY FIRE, which chronicles her experience as a hostage. Any who would understand occupied Iraq in general and both military politics and hostage situations will find this packed with insights and answers lending to both study and browser interest. Especially recommended for military and public library collections.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



4. I have not read this book but I am going to buy it today. This is a comment on the editorial review and this line in particular.
   
   "either she or translator Riva fail to distinguish between government and citizens in reference to "the Americans"
   
   Uh, last I checked (just watched School House Rock to make sure) the American People ARE the government. There are no two separate entities as "the government" and "the people" as we are a government "by the people, for the people, of the people".
   
   If they don't treat the Americans as two separate entities, then maybe they know something about our system of governing ourselves that we'd do well to remember.
   
   Yes, that makes me and you and anyone of voting age responsible for the war and for letting "our government" get away with what's happening.
   
   I have abstained from rating the book, merely because I have not read it yet, but I felt I must make this comment and I will buy this book immediately and update my rating accordingly.



5. 
   Irony is hardly the word to describe the situation of this hostage. Not only is she a stalwart champion of the suffering Iraqis including the ones who kidnapped her, but also she has little politically in common with the Italian Prime Minister who negotiates her release.
   
   The book was most interesting when Sgrena spoke to her own experience. More that 1/2 or more text was devoted to the issues such as utilities and insecutiry in Baghdad, the factions, the role women, religion, etc. 50% (or maybe more) of the text could have been written by others.
   
   It seems to me, readers interested in Sgrena and her story would be well versed in the Iraqi situation and would buy her book to hear what she has to say that speaks to her experience.
   
   I would have liked this book to be more about her captivity, her understanding of others who have been held hostage in this way, her observations of her captors, and a more precise reconstruction of the negotiations to free her.

No comments about The Starched Blue Sky Of Spain And Other Memoirs.

1 comments about The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens, Volume I: A Boy on Horseback/Seeing New York First.

1. I have read this book 3 times. 1979, 1986, and 1996. This book brings an exciting perspective to a time in history not well known by the average person. As well it gives political insight of corruption and mudslinging that existed well before the 1990's. The book is quite long, but never dull. I read it first right before college, and it influenced me to major in history/PoliSci.

3 comments about War Fix.

1. Although the subject code on the back of this book designates it as fiction, it's hard not to read it as highly autobiographical -- maybe even as a borderline memoir. Freelance writer David Axe has been to Iraq six times to cover the current war, and has published articles about it in a variety of publications, including The Village Voice, The Washington Times, Popular Science, Salon.com, and various regional free weeklies. The main "character" in this book is a young, rumpled smalltime journalist who feels a compulsion to travel to Iraq on his own dime to see what the war's like, so it's not hard to believe this isn't about Axe's experience. A prologue shows him watching Gulf War I live on CNN as a kid, so maybe the notion is that he's always been attracted to war. In any event, the book walks through the standard scenes of a newcomer to war -- for example, when a shell lands in the distance, he hits the ground when no one else does. Other stock scenes include the wariness of the soldiers to have anything to do with him, the boredom and banality of it all, and the meeting of an "old-timer" who's seen it all.
   
   This last character appears about 2/3 of the way though, and is BBC reporter who's spent his whole life covering combat zones. This war junkie is a vehicle for introducing the notion that one can get physically addicted to the stress and excitement of war. The story gets a little creepy in the voyeuristic sense that the protagonist is fascinated by observing the war and loves to write about it, and yet is removed from it -- he can leave any time he wants to. On the whole, the book doesn't really break new ground in terms of message. We all know that war is fascinating and can be addictive, and that 99% of it is spent waiting. Axe is actually writing a regular book called "War Is Boring" about his experiences in Iraq -- that may prove more insightful. Olexa's pen and ink artwork is striking for its balance of realism and dynamism. In keeping with the chaotic nature of war, he's eschewed traditional paneling in favor of more free flowing collages which sometimes span across both pages. While these can be compelling, they are also often confusing when trying to follow the narrative and one can be taken out of the moment in trying to figure out where to look next. In a sense, this works nicely in the sense of paralleling the chaos and uncertainty of war, however, I would have preferred slightly more order. On the whole this is an interesting and ambitious effort which doesn't have much new to say but is worth a look for presenting the material in a different way.



2. Before you get excited, realize that this is a graphic novel, not a military action nonfiction piece. As such, it's a striking representation in black and white pictures of journalist David Axe's journey to Baghdad and war, using artwork to describe an addiction to war's excitement. Axe's written on Iraq for other top publications; War Fix is far more than journalistic reporting and provides striking images to capture experience.



3. The art in this book is great, very crisp and a great sense of layout. I'd love to see the artist do something with Brian Wood if he hasn't already. The writing, while capable and competent, suffered for trying to sound "deeper" than it actually was. Not much new to say here, as another reviewer pointed out. A bunch of "newcomer to war" cliches are trotted out, with really banal, trite observations passed off as deep insights. Token shots at Bush, etc. I think a story that aimed lower and hit the mark would have impressed me more from the writer than a book that tries to be so philosophically and emotionally ambitious and miss the mark by a mile.

5 comments about Lone Star: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Dan Rather.

1. If there's one thing I'd really like to read -- I'm serious, mind you -- it's an insightful, deeply researched Dan Rather biography. There's probably no more enigmatic or divisive figure in late 20th century American journalism.
   
   After inhaling Alan Weisman's thin and cursorily researched "Lone Star," I want that book more than ever.
   
   For your $25.95 you get maybe eight good, if really catty, stories of control-obsessed Dan's backstage politicking at CBS News -- usually about freezing out, or wrecking the careers of, other correspondents and producers he allegedly found disloyal or threatening. That stuff, if true, goes a long way to explaining Dan's own chilly, no-flowers exit from CBS in 2006. (Live by the sword, die by the sword.)
   
   But Weisman (an old CBS News off-air hand) creates no real insight. You want to know why Dan is who he is and you never find out. It's not enough to take the reader's money and then conclude, well, it's a mystery. I can do that on my own.
   
   Dan's professional conduct was clearly somehow cued by his modest Texas roots and the fish-out-of-water experience of landing among all those smirking Eastern journalism elites. But Weisman talks directly to nobody from Dan's early days; those pages are based almost entirely on clips ripped from Dan's own earlier memoirs, "I Remember" and "The Camera Never Blinks Twice," which Rather students will already know.
   
   Weisman develops no clear position on Dan. Was he a conscientious heir to Ed Murrow, an insecure egotist and air hog, a nonpareil street reporter, a vicious character assassin, or a Macbeth-scale tragic figure? Weisman ticks "all of the above," and gives us editorial dribs and drabs in support of all these facets and more, but a coherent portrait never emerges. Perhaps this is because Weisman's original sourcing is mostly interviews with high-ranking members of the smirking media elites themselves, past and present -- each with their own agenda and axes to grind. Weisman veers between defending Rather's motives and relating awful secondhand stories about him. He zips past the inevitable Nixon/Rather parallels, saying too much has already been said about them; well, maybe in the bars he hangs out at. But to many of the rest of us a twin-track psychological profile of the tortured, insecure, angry president and the tortured, terminally uncomfortable anchorman would be really interesting.
   
   Weisman isn't one for such detail, or a leisurely/scholarly discussion of anything, really. At only 221 pages of wide-spaced type, less 16 pages of unnecessary photos, "Lone Star" takes one medium-length plane flight to knock off. The author's broadcast newswriting background shows. In TV a serious script runs about ten sentences, so any book-length wordcount is a Herculean effort for a TV guy. But it feels more like a long magazine piece, only some accounts of crucial moments in Dan's career make no sense and would have been better edited at Esquire or Vanity Fair. How exactly did Dan relay his JFK-is-dead scoop to New York on November 22, 1963? What exactly was the sequence of events when Dan left the Evening News set in Miami in 1987? What exactly did Dan do during the four days it took to produce the fateful Memogate story in 2004? You can read "Lone Star"'s accounts very carefully and still be confused. There's far too little chronological detail -- basic reportage, ironically, is too often missing. As is Dan himself. He did not cooperate with this project. Probably wisely.
   
   Like Johnny Carson, Rather dominated broadcast television for a whole era but remained a tantalizing cipher. Nothing changes after "Lone Star." Bill Zehme's upcoming Carson bio should be revelatory, given Zehme's style and insight. Maybe he should tackle Dan next. Weisman leaves a lot of work to be done. Dan, if you read this -- wouldn't Zehme be the man?



2. Everybody knows the name of Dan Rather, the reporter who appeared on the radar screen at JFK's assassination and rose to CBS News favored son status reporting from Vietnam, the White House, hurricane lamp posts, the CBS News anchor chair and virtually every hot spot around the world, but most people have never heard of Alan Weisman, the author of "LONE STAR: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Dan Rather."
   
   For those in the broadcast news business, Alan Weisman -- hands down -- is the finest producer who ever walked the halls of CBS News. There is no contest here. Intelligent, industrious, creative, insightful, witty, thorough and totally uncompromising, over the years he probably irritated as many higher-ups as he created awestruck fans in the trenches.
   
   Weisman decided up front his book would be a professional-only work. He does not engage in petty gossip about Dan Rather. Instead he chooses to focus on more serious matters - on the man and the institution which he shaped and which in turn shaped him. It is a fascinating inside look, a view available only through the prism of an experienced insider.
   
   I recommend this book to anyone who wants to take the tour in the hands of a total professional.



3. Excellent glimse inside of the workings of CBS News and the legendary Dan Rather.



4. This book is a quick read. The author often refers to Rather's previous book entitled The Camera Never Blinks in addition to a Playboy interview. Most of the book is about the shenanigans that take place in network television and the egos and insecurities of those involved including the network announcers. I didn't find the book to be a keeper for my library.



5. For anyone who watched Dan Rather with any regularity, this is definitely an interesting and insightful book about the man and the behind-the-scenes workings of CBS. From growing up in Texas to covering Vietnam to his final days in the anchor chair, you get a look at Dan Rather the man versus Dan Rather the reporter/anchor, and not all of it is favorable. Weisman's account of things is pretty fair to all parties involved, shows multiple viewpoints and allows the reader to make their own judgements. Of particular interest is his accounts of what went on at CBS when the corporate structures were changed and how it affected Rather. The only real problem I have with this book is that it seems like it is really only giving a summary of Rather's life instead of a detailed account. Otherwise, I highly recommend it.

No comments about Benjamin Franklin Bache and the Philadelphia Aurora.

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No comments about Catarino Garzas Revolution on the Texas-Mexico Border (American Encounters/Global Interactions).

No comments about Black Voices in Commentary: The Trotter Group.

No comments about Pacific Microphone (Texas a&M University Military History Series, Vol 8).