Exploring American Histories: Printed Page 941

Document 29.2

Farnaz Fassihi | Report from Baghdad, 2004

After U.S. forces ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003, civil war broke out between rival religious sects of Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims. Many Iraqis viewed the United States as an occupying power despite efforts to reconstruct the war-torn nation and promote free elections. In an e-mail to friends in the United States, Wall Street Journal correspondent Farnaz Fassihi presents a frank assessment of the deteriorating conditions in Baghdad in September 2004.

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Source: Lisa Grunwald and Stephen J. Adler, eds., Women’s Letters: America from the Revolutionary War to the Present (New York: Dial Press, 2005), 758–60.

  • Question

    How do conditions in Baghdad affect Fassihi’s ability to report on the war?

  • Question

    Why do the Iraqis think the war is going badly?

  • Question

    What are some of the challenges of rebuilding Iraq?

Put It in Context

Question

How does this document challenge the Bush administration’s views on the Iraq War?