Saturday, February 28, 2009

Unembedded: Two Decades of Maverick War Reporting



by Scott Taylor (Douglas & McIntyre,374 pages, $34.95 hardcover)

This review originally appeared in The Record February 28, 2009.

In early September 2002, journalists flocked to New York City to cover the first anniversary commemoration of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Following the road less travelled, Scott Taylor headed for Baghdad on a hunch, "that Bush might use the first anniversary of September 11, 2001, to send a message to Saddam."
The hunch proved wrong, but was typical of Taylor's unorthodox approach. In an era of "embedded" journalists who accompany troops with command approval, his style is more Raoul Duke than "Crusty" Blatchford.

The life journey that led Taylor to become publisher of Ottawa-based Esprit de Corps magazine has been no less unusual than his seat-of-the-pants reporting style.
In 1980 he was a student at the Ontario College of Art, playing drums in a punk band called The Offenders and anticipating a career as a graphic artist.

"When this scenario fully hit home," he writes, "I packed a small bag and headed straight to the nearest armed forces recruiting centre."

In 1988, on leaving the forces, Taylor established Esprit de Corps as "an inflight magazine for the Canadian air force" as it shuttled troops to Germany and across Canada. The Department of National Defence had complete control of the contents and prepublication approval rights. The magazine was heavy on illustrations, light on editorial content and relied on advertising revenue from companies seeking to promote products to service personnel.

Over the next eight years, Esprit de Corps shook off that editorial oversight and evolved into a beast that many commanders and bureaucrats wished they had never unleashed. Stories about crime and corruption in the highest ranks of the forces, coupled with issues titled "Sex in the Service" and "Scapegoat," established its reputation as the bette noir of the military brass and its publisher as the "voice of the grunt."

Taylor unconditionally supports the troops, but never hesitates to question the mission and machinations of desk jockeys, bureaucrats and politicians in Ottawa.
As the magazine evolved, he was also developing his unorthodox style of unembedded war reporting, predicated on a simple maxim: fly, drive or hitch a ride, but always "march to the sound of the guns."

Over the last 20 years, this approach has seen him make dozens of trips to the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. It has also given him the opportunity to frequently report from territory untouched by pool journalists and the mainstream media.
His book describes the 1993 Battle of the Medak Pocket, which involved Canadian troops in a shooting war with Croatian troops determined to eliminate the Serbian presence in the Krajina, an ethnic Serbian enclave in southern Croatia.
It was Canada's largest and most costly engagement since the Korean War and Taylor was the lone Canadian journalist there.

Discussing the Afghan conflict, Taylor recounts interviews with General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a key figure in the Northern Alliance during the war against the Taliban; with Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban government's last official spokesperson; and with Amrullah Saleh, head of the Afghan National Directorate of Security. In Iraq he interviewed Kurd and Turkmen leaders as well as sharing dinner and an off-the-record (at the time) discussion with Saddam Hussein's Minister of Defence, before the second Gulf War.

Taylor has paid a price for his courage and independent reportage. In September 2004, he was the unwilling guest of Ansar-al-Sunnah and others in Iraq. He was held five days, tortured and threatened with death, all of which is dispassionately described.

Throughout the book, Taylor resists the black and white morality plays often seen in the mainstream media. He refuses to present complex issues in terms of good guys and bad guys. A compelling read, Unembedded also offers nuanced explanations of both the history and multifarious aspects of the many conflicts he has covered.

No comments:

Post a Comment