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Past Event

A Foreign Policy and 21st Century Defense Initiative Event

Breathing the Fire: Fighting to Report—and Survive—the War in Iraq

Iraq

Event Summary

On June 25, the 21st Century Defense Initiative at Brookings hosted Kimberly Dozier, CBS News correspondent, for a discussion of her new book Breathing the Fire: Fighting to Report—and Survive—the War in Iraq (Meredith Books, 2008). Dozier has covered the Middle East as a foreign correspondent for CBS News in Baghdad from 2003 until 2006, when the Army convoy she traveled with was attacked. The car bomb killed her cameraman and soundman, as well as the officer they were following, Captain James Alex Funkhouser and his translator Sam—and left her severely wounded.

Event Information

When

Wednesday, June 25, 2008
1:00 PM to 3:00 PM

Where

Falk Auditorium
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC
Map

Contact: Brookings Office of Communications

Email: events@brookings.edu

Phone: 202.797.6105

To discuss her new book, Dozier was joined by Martha Raddatz, ABC News White House correspondent, and Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, senior military assistant to the secretary of defense. Raddatz began her tenure with ABC News in 1999 as State Department correspondent. In May 2006, she became the network’s senior national security correspondent and reported exclusively from Iraq. Before his current assignment, Lieutenant General Chiarelli commanded the Multi-National Corps—Iraq in 2006 and the 1st Cavalry Division during the second year of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Brookings Senior Fellow Michael O’Hanlon provided introductory remarks and moderated the discussion.

Transcript

KIMBERLY DOZIER:  Now I wonder if some of the media haven’t painted themselves into a corner. When I talk to members of the U.S. public, as in, I’m walking in the grocery store, someone looks at me, they look at me twice, hey, wait, you’re that reporter chick who got bombed, and they come out with their opinion on the war in Iraq. And from World War II veterans to housewives with a baby on their hip, what I most hear is, we should just get out of there and let them kill each other. And I think, great, they’ve decided what’s happened with the war on the ground.

A recent pew survey said that fewer than 40 percent of people surveyed think that Iraq can turn out in any positive way. So I found some of my colleagues being very tentative about reporting success on the ground. And I found that the U.S. audience is confused, they don’t know, is the administration crying wolf, or is it us.So I’m here to tell you that what I have learned from this whole experience is that I’m going to keep sticking to my guns, telling you what I think I see, even though it’s not popular, because that’s the only way that I can both serve the fourth estate and the American people I’m trying to educate.

Participants

Introduction and Moderator

Michael E. O'Hanlon

Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy

Keynote Remarks

Kimberly Dozier

Correspondent, CBS News

Panelists

Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli

Senior Military Assistant to Secretary of Defense
U.S. Department of Defense

Martha Raddatz

White House Correspondent, ABC News


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