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Judith Weiss has a round-up of remembrances to commemorate the first anniversary of Journalist Stephen Vincent's death in Iraq:

It is fitting to commemorate Vincent's life and death with a blogburst. Vincent had no pretensions about journalism; he jumped into the blogosphere long before most journalists dipped their toes in, and immediately attracted a following among those who shared his curiosity and enthusiasm about the grand experiment of liberating and reconstructing Iraq. He was interviewed by bloggers, corresponded with them, guest-blogged and even participated in bloggy games liketagging. In MSNBC's survey of the blog reaction to his death, it was clear he was considered "one of the family."

I remember taking notice of Vincent's death and feeling regret, but I hadn't delved into his writing until yesterday. I was blown away by the clarity of his prose and impressive narrative gift:

Unless you're a VIP who can fly directly into the Baghdad airport, the usual way to get to the city is from Amman, Jordan -- a 600-mile, 12-hour-plus drive (depending on the vagaries of Jordanian customs officials) across barren terrain only a Bedouin could love. My Iraqi driver picked me up at my hotel at 1 a.m., and after interminable hours bouncing in a GMC Suburban along unmarked pavement lit by stars, we hit the border at dawn. By a neat bit of timing, the sun was just lifting over the horizon when we cleared the final checkpoint and, as I slipped a Nelson Riddle tape into the cassette player, we were off again, roaring across the Mesopotamian desert to the strains of "Route 66."

I'd come to Iraq to test my beliefs. Back in New York, I'd been a firm and vocal backer of the war, though not necessarily of the Bush administration. After witnessing firsthand the horrific events of 9/11, I felt the civilized nations of the world had to take on terrorism at its roots -- roots that included the Middle East's legacy of poverty, hopelessness, and despotism, epitomized by, among other tyrants, Saddam Hussein. Saddam may or may not have contributed to the murder of 3,000 people in downtown Manhattan, but I believed a free and prosperous Iraq, spreading ripples of democracy and the rule of law from Damascus to Riyadh, was a key element in preventing similar attacks in America or elsewhere.

Read the rest - it's a moving, educational piece. What a terrible loss.

(Second link via Nick Gillespie, who has his own remembrance)

Posted by Bill at August 3, 2006 10:13 AM | TrackBack (2)

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