Sunday, June 15, 2003

Don McCullin, the war photographer with whom I spent some time with in Northern Iraq, has published his Iraq diary in this month's Esquire magazine.

The mag's website has the following extract:
"An absence of 12 years, I wasn’t at all sure that I wanted to cover another war. But when the opportunity presented itself, I had to make a snap decision. The journey and process of getting here was hell. After many false starts, the Turkish authorities allowed us into Iraq on one condition: we would never be allowed to enter Turkey again if we failed to return after attending the conference being held by the Iraqi National congress (INC) in Salahuddin. Needless to say, I had no intention of complying. After two days on a coach amid a lot of neurotic chain-smoking hacks, I reached Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish Empire in Northern Iraq.

"The hotel is a dump, the food is disgusting and within a few days I’ve managed to get myself a dose of the trots and a cold, plus the zip of my trousers has fallen apart. It’s amazing how quickly you can physically deteriorate when morale is low."


Ahhhh...all those memories of the Arbil Tower Hotel are just flooding back. Disgusting food, the trots, broken zips.....it seems like only yesterday. It looks like this month's Esquire is a must read.

Discuss "Beyond Northern Iraq"

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