Antiwar journalist tells of experiences in Iraq

Journalist Dahr Jamail, who worked for eight months as an unembedded journalist in Iraq, spoke to a packed auditorium Thursday night in the Jackson Geological Sciences Building.

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the School of Journalism, the International Socialist Organization, MEChA, Campus Antiwar Movement to End the Occupation, Campus Progress, Iranians for Peace and Justice and the Palestine Solidarity Committee sponsored the event.

Jamail said he made more than four trips to Iraq between November 2003 and February 2005. In his book "Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq," Jamail includes interviews with Iraqi citizens and U.S. soldiers.

"Watching the buildup to the war and how the media handled that situation, the mainstream media, which was essentially a selling of the war without asking any of the responsible questions and critical questions that should have been asked, I was outraged at that kind of so-called journalism," Jamail said. "So I decided to go over to see what's happening in Iraq myself."

Texas State University student and Iraq War veteran Brian Henretta

opened for Jamail. Henretta worked in communications for the military while in Iraq and said the truth of what was happening overseas was not reported.

Jamail said some media outlets are improperly reporting the success of the military surge in Iraq, which began in early 2007.

When discussing justification for the war in Iraq, Jamail spoke about oil, Bush administration connections to contractors in Iraq, such as Halliburton, and the U.S. strategy for "global domination."

Greg Foster, Texas State University student and Iraq Army veteran, said there is not enough debate about the war.

"As long as we're believing the lies that are being told to us by the administration and by the media in this country, then we're gonna continue to be harming people in Iraq and we're gonna continue to be doing a disservice to our troops," Foster said.

Jamail said recent polls report that at least 70 percent of Iraqis support immediate, unconditional U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

Mustafa Mezaal, an ESL student from Baghdad who arrived in Austin three months ago, said he does not agree with Jamail and that a majority of Iraqis do not want the U.S. to withdraw immediately.

"It's gonna be big chaos. It's gonna be like a big mess," Mezaal said. "I'm sorry, but we don't agree with you."

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