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

On June 25, the 21^st 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.

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 1^st Cavalry Division during the second year of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

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