Becoming the story

Jill Carroll, determined, devoted journalist.

Ms. Carroll struck a chord in the Arab world as well as in the West, perhaps in part because of her passionate attachment to Iraq and its people. Conservative Islamist politicians in Iraq issued emotional pleas for her release, as did some of the most militant anti-American groups in the Middle East, like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Her earnest face — usually framed by a traditional Muslim head scarf — became familiar on television screens across the globe.

Then there's this from the CSMonitor when she was first kidnapped:

Carroll's friends in Bagdhad note that she is motivated not just by her professionalism, but also by a love of Iraq, a country that she has come to call "home."

"She always felt that she belongs to this country," writes Baghdad Treasure, a blogger and reporter in Iraq and a friend of Carroll. "Once, I had hamburger for lunch. 'What is this?' she said sarcastically. "You leave all this delicious Iraqi food and eat a hamburger?'"

At times, Carroll would become overwhelmed by the suffering she witnessed. "She loved this country and its people ," says the author of "24 Steps to Liberty" blog in Bagdhad and another friend of Carroll's:

"She sympathized with its sufferings and committed to tell the truth. When I talked to her about how the Iraqis live, she always cried. She cried for the sufferings of Iraq more than Iraqis. She has the nicest heart in this world. When I blamed Iraqis for what is happening in the country, she said "'don't blames [sic] the Iraqis. You should blame the governments for what they do.'"

When Carroll was abducted, her translator, Allan Enwiyah, was murdered.

Carroll has a deep love and respect for the Iraqi people and Iraqi culture, attested by her many good Iraqi friends.

I don't know what "professionalism" means to the Monitor, but this sounds to me like she should have been reassigned before this happened. But this headline to a story about her interpreter who was killed during her kidnapping, bothers me. It reads, "Helping Jill interpret Iraq"

Allan Enwiya, fatally shot during Jill Carroll's capture, is one of 26 media assistants killed since the war began. Allan Enwiya was one of at least 86 journalists and media assistants who have been killed in Iraq since the beginning of the war, according to the international organization Reporters Without Borders. Twenty-six of those were like Mr. Enwiya, the assistants doing one of the most dangerous and important jobs for news organizations covering Iraq.

Why were they putting their employees into this position? Could it have something to do with that verb "interpret?" Trying to build a relationship with the terrorists so you can report their point of view, or even just mixing into Iraqi society for the "human interest" angle, reminds me of the line in Chinatown that "You may think you know what you're dealing with, but, believe me, you don't."

Arab tribal societies can be dangerous places, even when they have a veneer of modernity and sophisticated. The news organizations that send reporters them should know that by now. Jill Carroll only got kidnapped. Allan Enwiya died. So did Daniel Pearl, trying to meet with terrorists. We send soldiers there with armor and weapons. What makes reporters think that they don't need any protection? Their good intentions?

They may think they are neutral, but they fool themselves to think so. Their efforts to humanize the enemy and understand their point of view is seen by the likes of Zarqawi as a PR tool to help win the political war back here. At the very least, this kind of effort to show a human face causes these criminals to think we're a weak enemy. At the worst, it could cost us the war and lead to a bloodbath that our media won't be allowed to report.