"101 Days: A Baghdad Journal" is a One Day Read!

Asne Seierstad spent 101 days in Baghdad before, during and after the commencement of George W. Bush's Gulf War, covering the action as a journalist in March of 2003. A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal is Ms. Seierstad's eye-opening account of her time in Baghdad. The articles that are sent back to her news agency are what she calls "glimpses of the war" and provide tiny, inside glances at how the Iraqi people lived through the initial stages of the war.

Initially, Ms. Seierstad describes the battles that she and her fellow journalists had to wage against the Ministry of Information. There were constant struggles to get the proper passes and permission to talk with certain people and to go to certain parts of the city of Baghdad as well as certain parts of Iraq. Certain parts of Iraq continued to remain off limits to international journalists, regardless of how much bribery and political schmoozing occurred. The story of Asne's time in Iraq progresses to her sneaking away from her "minder" (also known as her translator), to be with child psychologists who are interviewing Iraqi children regarding the effects of war on their psyche. The story then progresses through the war and liberation of Iraq by the Americans.

I really enjoyed Ms. Seierstad's account of her little over three months in Iraq. It was simple, straightforward, succinct and subtle; however it was also a very telling and powerful eyewitness account of the devastation that the Iraqi people, cities and countryside underwent as a result of the United States' invasion and liberation. I particularly enjoyed Ms. Seierstad's discussions with local Iraqi people - the conversations that occurred without her minders. A lot of them were not as candid as one would hope that they could be as the people that she spoke with were rightfully afraid of retribution being meted out upon them and their loved ones. However, they were beautiful and a lesson in and of themselves with regards to the Iraqi people. Those conversations served to remind me, the reader, that war and politics are very, very complicated matters; they are matters that cannot be simplified regardless of how much we would like to just simplify it and everyone is going to see that experience differently, through the lens of their own life.

All in all, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in current political events and/or memoirs.