A Reporter's View From the War Zone

[MountainLaurel]

Three years into the Iraq war, Richard Engel was holding down the fort as NBC's Baghdad bureau chief when a top producer in

"It was all about getting good-news stories out there," Engel says. "There was a collective impression that all the journalists were getting it wrong. It quickly spread to the blogosphere and the world of punditry. It seemed orchestrated."

Despite the feedback, Engel says NBC executives never directly pressed him to change his approach to the violence in Iraq. But in recent weeks he has found himself under assault by the White House over the editing of an interview with President Bush -- the same president who had once invited him to the Oval Office to seek his advice about the interminable conflict.

The violence in Iraq may be subsiding, for now, but the debate over how we got there and what to do next, fueled by the presidential campaign, is as polarizing as ever. And journalists, some of whom are starting to speak more candidly about the duress they have faced, are front and center in that argument.

In his new book, "War Journal," Engel recounts the toll of his five years in Iraq. NBC's bureau was bombed by terrorists, moved to a new location and bombed again. And he hasn't left the conflict behind: Two weeks ago, he found himself in the midst of an extended gun battle in Sadr City.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/09/AR2008060902790.html