If Bob Sheppard is the voice of the Yankees, Anne Garrels is most certainly the voice of Iraq.

Garrels, who has served as a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio since 1988, spoke last night to an audience that packed Hendricks Chapel to the rafters. Credited as one of the 16 journalists to remain in Iraq to report since the beginning of the war, Garrels has been in the country since March of 2003. She’s spent time embedded with a battalion in Fallujah, written about the everyday plight of Iraqi families and survived more than her fair share of near-brushes with death.

‘She’s the voice of this war,’ said David Rubin, dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications as he introduced Garrels, ‘often the only sane voice of this war.’

After experiencing the elements of both Iraq and the war abroad, Garrels says if anyone had told her more than three years ago that she would still be in Baghdad, she would have asked what they were smoking. But her time in the Middle East has given her a unique opportunity – to be able to listen to Iraqis.

Their country has dramatically changed in the three decades since Saddam Hussein came into power; from a wealthy, booming center to a crumbling mess. However, Garrels said, even those who wanted an end to Hussein’s brutality had a real misgiving about foreigners coming in to change things.

‘Just imagine if it happened here,’ Garrels said.

As she stood watching the statue of Hussein be torn down in Baghdad, a man approached her, telling her that now the Americans would have to be in complete control of the reconstruction of the country. That hasn’t been the case thus far.

‘There was no comprehensive policy for staffing and planning post-war Iraq,’ she said, adding that the military has been responsible for most of the reconstruction. She cited a recent report by a special inspector general in Iraq about five new electrical substations as an example of the disorganization: They were beautiful, but they were attached to nothing.

Iraqis are brooding with a general sense of fear – fear for their safety, fear for their families and fear for their country. This is in part because of a lack of security, Garrels said. Even if Iraqis know information that might be helpful to the soldiers, they’re usually afraid to come forward – they just don’t know who they can trust. NPR alone spends $1,000 a day on security for its staff, and that’s on the low end for organizations in Iraq. This mistrust partially stems from the language barrier, Garrels said.

‘Frankly, the first word that Iraqis know, it begins with an ‘f’ and ends with a ‘k,” she said.

One of Garrels’ most intense experiences was being embedded with Marines in Fallujah. The only female out of three battalions, Garrels joked that she was a little old for the soldiers’ taste, but recognized that she formed an odd relationship with them as both journalist and companion. The young Marines questioned whether she would be able to handle the grittiness of war, but none of them had ever faced combat, either.

While sitting around the fire at night, Garrels spoke to the soldiers about their fears, hopes and dreams. Two members of her battalion were killed in combat, and while this was heart-wrenching, Garrels was able to send tapes of her conversations to the victims’ families, who in turn played the recordings at the soldiers’ funerals.

While Garrels is critical of the U.S. effort in Iraq, she’s quick to point out her own shortcomings as a journalist. She realizes when she’s been tired, worn down by her circumstances and hasn’t done her job as well as she believes she could.

‘We’re not perfect as reporters,’ she said. ‘I’ve missed opportunities, but you just try the best you can to get it right.’

Pureterrah Witcher, a graduate student in Newhouse, said many reporters seem to put themselves on a pedestal, and that she respected Garrels’ self-critical attitude.

‘She was very sincere and graphic about her experience there,’ Witcher said. ‘I appreciated her ability to be forthcoming.’

Garrels recently returned from Iraq and has been resting up. She said that after five days, she told her husband she was prepared to leave again, but he half-jokingly rebutted that she had to stay at least through Thanksgiving. It’s clear, though – Garrels will be returning to her place in Iraq. She couldn’t have it any other way.

‘One reason I keep going back is that I have to find out what’s going to happen,’ Garrels said.

Published on November 10, 2005 at 12:00 pm