The Unbiased NPR - Instapundit

The Unbiased NPR - Instapundit cued me into something I'd almost forgotten about - an interview I heard Thursday night on "The World", with Terry Gross interviewing Ann Garrels, NPR's woman on the street in the Bagh for much of the past year or so.

NZ Bear covers the story like I wished I'd have remembered to do at the time.

Money quote:

Gross asked a simple question, Garrels answer to which speaks volumes:

Terry Gross: Could you describe what you consider to be the emotional high point and low point for you during the war --- as a reporter and as a human being being there?

Anne Garrels: I think a curious high point was in the weeks afterwards when I realized that all the months of staying there had really been worth it because Iraqis had so accurately predicted what was going to happen happen; Iraqis knew themselves and made it very clear. So in a perverse kind of way I guess that was a high point. I was astonished at how ill-prepared the Bush administration was for the aftermath from the very beginning. And that continues to this day.

Think about this. Garrels witnessed the fall of one of the more evil regimes of the past century. Even for the most staunch opponent of the war, the end of Saddam's power and the beginning of the Iraqi people's freedom must be recognized as a hugely achievement event for human decency.

But what was Garrels emotional high point? That's right: when she felt reassured that yes, things really are going badly for Iraq -- and the U.S. When her view that America was screwing things up was confirmed.

It is human to want to validate one's own actions; to feel some smug self-justification if events do indeed turn out badly when one has been predicting they would. But in Garrels situation, with all the things she must have seen and experienced, to declare that feeling to be the high point?

It is honorable of Garrels to admit this honestly. But that doesn't make it any less pathetic.

Pathetic isn't the word I'd use. I'd pick "depressing" or "infuriating".

Bear's story includes the entire depressing thing in RealAudio.

Posted by Mitch at September 13, 2003 09:54 AM