On the front page Thursday’s New York Times, Dexter Filkins reported on a funeral send-off in Ramadi, Iraq, capital of Anbar Province, that has occurred every day in Anbar this month. Filkins described in forceful, writerly detail American Sergeant Terry Michael Lisk’s death and the nighttime helicopter pickup of his coffin, bound for Camp Anaconda north of Baghdad, and ultimately the United States. Recapping the nearly silent military sendoff by men of the First Brigade is the whole article, and it is powerfully concise.
Filkins’ report is remarkable not because it led on the front page of the Times, but because of the weariness and intent in his voice if you listen to the audio slideshow that accompanies the piece online. Here is a physical story, with Filkins himself recapping it and relaying the reporters’ life in war, accompanying the soldiers. He’s tired, obviously, recording at 2am, and there’s an audible fire-fight in the background. Filkins isn’t searching for a story, (it’s too cynical to connect this war reporting with other motivations); he’s trying to present American soldiers as they are in Anbar right now. His Iraq writing for the Times has been very successful before, and prompts the wish that more front page war reporting could be as direct.
Here’s a small bit from his audio slideshow - simple reflection between reporting on a soldier’s death.
With so many soldiers being killed here, there’s an almost natural inclination to numb yourself to it and to imagine them as just names, or statistics. And I think the ceremony that I was able to witness here that took place near the landing zone was one of many ways that the military tries to remember the individual soldiers who have been killed here.
