I've just seen the video pictures of the injured people, wreckage and burning vehicles that John Simpson descibes in this radio interview shortly after the attack. A very shocking event and you can clearly hear how shaken he is in the interview, but he has amazing composure to keep going despite being wounded and having collegues killed beside him, transcript of event here.
I can't help thinking that this is what every bomb has been like for those people beside it from the countless thousands dropped. Regardless of whose propaganda you believe and given that many fewer people have died in this war compared to the previous, death is still death and this has happened all over Iraq, many times.
Hopefully this war will end soon and the coalition will do a better job of maintaining peace in Iraq that they have done in Afganistan.
John Simpson and being bombed
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Absolutely
I think it takes something like this happening to someone we 'know' from the media, to bring it home to us how much fear and horror Iraqi people must be feeling day after day.
When you hear media reports that 'the people of Bagdad are carrying on very much as normal', this totally fails to take account of the psychological impact the bombardment will be having on them.
Lucy
As much as John Simpson's words are moving and well destined I cannot help but think, as a freelance photojournalist, how without the images
caught by the as yet "unnamed"(?) BBC newsphotographer this piece would not have had the drama it, albeit sadly, has. This is just a
comment to the people reading these posts that while the words are important I believe the images
are as, if not more, important to any news piece.
Regards,
John (Jack) Simpson
Vancouver, BC, Canada