I had to devote one post just to the surrealness of meeting Anne Garrels. Not due to her semi-celebrity (I guess among NPR junkies), but because of how she's gotten there - what she's seen & experienced.

A lot of bloggers, not just us usual blowhards on Journalscape, lob opinions about Iraq back and forth. That's why I considered this direct account so invaluable. I shoulda taken notes, but hey - it was a Sunday. Sue me. I'll try and share what I remember...

First off, Anne is shellshocked. OK, not really, but she can't seem to hear very well - whenever anyone had a question, she had to scoot up right next to them and still strain to hear. I guess decades of being a war correspondent'll do that to ya. You're lucky if you're still alive, but either way your ears are gonna go.

She said something along the lines of, and don't quote me, "This is the best job in the entire world if it does not kill you."

(Wow, sign me up!)

She was in Baghdad during Shock and Awe. She described the air war as far more precise and clean than the total mess on the ground that is occuring right now. She said there was far less collateral damage (read: um, "death") in the invasion this time 'round, mainly because unlike Gulf War I, we were only targeting military/palace strongholds instead of going after the country's infrastructure.

She described a guided missile flying right past her window, then banking sharp to the left, and smashing through the third story of a nearby building - the target it was intended for. 'Much more aerial precision.

Predictably, she does not report glad tidings from Iraq. ...But she seemed to convey that things are far more worse over there than we can possibly imagine. She's going back, but if things keep spiraling the way they are she thinks it's only a matter of time before all news agencies have to pull their people out and the country dissolves into civil war. (Have another drink!)

She also commented on how remarkably Iraqis on the street predicted this exact outcome before the war. They basically said to her, "If you topple Saddam, you are going to have to be the authority, and we are going to resent you for that."

That famous shot of the Saddam statue being toppled? The military had to come in and pull it down for the cameras when all the Iraqis stood on the periphery, in total shock. Not as in they were going to miss Saddam, but as in, "Holy hell...what in the f*ck happens now??" Not exactly flowers being thrown at the feet of the troops.

She also did not have kind words for the thugs that monitored her under pre-Invasion Saddam rule. (Insert your own justification of the Iraq War debate here.)

The Palestine Hotel shelling: A new buddy of mine who's Spanish (this guy's amazing...this program is hard enough in English) started to ask her about the Spanish cameramen. She cut him off in mid-sentence: "They were my friends."

Her eyes didn't well up, but it was almost the equivalent-of for someone who's been so battle-hardened, and seen so many awful things happen over the years. She doesn't look old & weary - quite the opposite - but she certainly wears the strain in her face.

She was by no means partisan or political, but she said she couldn't believe the inexperience of the State Dept. officials sent over to help under Bremer. Guys with no experience, other than being politically on-board with the war. Guys who literally needed to get passports - because they'd never been out of the United States.

She said nobody can get close enough to the insurgency - military or journalist - to get good hard info on exactly who they are, how they're operating, coordination between Baathists and muslim extremists. A guy from Time got close, and he got some good "color," but then it just got too dangerous.

She said after the invasion tons of Iraqi army uniforms were discarded in the streets - many of whom, including her own monitors, disappeared underground presumably to fight another day. 'Looks like that's exactly what happened.

Even the most die-hard psycho-crazy journalist can't even get near Fallujah. 'Guaranteed death sentence.

Anyhow...some of this sounds obvious as I type it, but I dunno - just the visceral veracity of this first-hand account...it was very powerful stuff.

Anne goes back in a couple weeks, just as the situation for journalists reaches the point of intolerability over there. Wish her well...

Oh, check out her book, too: Naked in Baghdad. I haven't read it yet, but I'm dying to. Bad choice of words.