The New York Times Magazine
Kim Jong Il, the world’s most dangerous dictator, has always been a figure surrounded by mystery and myth. But, from defectors and former aides, a portrait is emerging of family dysfunction, palace intrigue and imperial menace.
October 19, 2003
The ...
Category: Article
The Race to Baghdad
Outside Magazine
This spring, a quarter of a million Americans took a trip. It was noisy, hot, and violent. Accommodations were poor. Some of them didn’t come back.
July 2003
I do not know the value of life. In every war zone that I find myself in, I routinely fail to establish ...
Meet the New Boss
The New York Times Magazine
Dathar Khashab had what it took to maneuver his way up through the ranks in Saddam Hussein’s oil bureaucracy. When his new managers showed up wearing U.S.-issue fatigues, he didn’t miss a step.
June 8, 2003
There are two types of people who do ...
Salam Pax Is Real
Slate
How do I know Baghdad’s famous blogger exists? He worked for me.
June 2, 2003
Baghdad was hectic when two blogging friends e-mailed me to suggest that I track down “Salam Pax.” I had no idea who or what they were talking about. I could have handed over the job ...
Trying to Rebuild Iraq, While Watching Their Backs
The New York Times
May 11, 2003
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The news conference was held in splendid isolation. Splendid, that is, if you enjoy being walled off from the rest of Baghdad by tanks, armored Humvees, barbed wire and a small army of soldiers bearing M-16 assault rifles and .50-caliber machine guns.
The ...
Back-Room Theocrat
The New York Times Magazine
Moqtadah al-Sadr wants an Iraq run by God’s laws. But first he has to outsmart his rivals, outmaneuver the Americans and get Iraq’s millions of Shiites behind him.
May 11, 2003
Najaf is one of the great spiritual centers of the world’s 120 million ...
Slumlords
The New Republic
Dispatch from Baghdad
May 3, 2003
A few days after American troops entered Baghdad, I went to Saddam City, a sprawling slum inhabited almost exclusively by Shia Muslims. But, by the time I got there, Saddam City was gone. Yes, the people were still there, as was the ...
“Good Kills”
The New York Times Magazine
To get to Baghdad, the marines of the Third Battalion fought the old-fashioned way–by shooting as many of the enemy as they could. Their victims weren’t all soldiers.
April 20, 2003
As the war in Iraq is debated and turned into history, the emphasis ...
Soldier of Misfortune
The New York Times Magazine
April 13, 2003
The following is an interview I conducted with Lance Corporal Derrick Jensen, published in the April 13 issue of The New York Times Magazine.
First off I want people to understand that there is more than just combat. We’re not seeing fighting at all times. ...
Hungry Road
The New York Times
Food, Too, Can Be a Weapon of the War In Iraq.
April 6, 2003
AL KUT, Iraq–A few days ago I drove with a Marine convoy into the desert north of Nasiriya, heading toward Baghdad. The landscape was as unforgiving as it comes–parched and barren, like the ...