How to Write

Here's my example du jour of how to write a story about this war that covers it honestly, not flinching from the hard parts or skipping past the good news. It portrays military men without condescending to them or puffing them into cartoon heroes or villains.

The reporter is Bruce Finley of the Denver Post. The piece as it appeared on the newswire was headlined U.S. COMMANDERS ENCOURAGING IRAQIS TO TAKE CONTROL, which I think is better than the headline on the newspaper's Web site.

Tigris Valley, Iraq — Flying 150 feet above the jade waters of the Tigris River in an open Blackhawk helicopter recently, U.S. Army Col. H.R. McMaster looked out and studied riverside villas with satellite dishes on top.

Displaced honchos from the Saddam Hussein era live here. And as commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry, McMaster was headed to check on some 150 ground troops he'd sent to work with Iraqi troops sweeping through the area.

Soldiers say it means the world when a commander joins them in the field, rolling down the same risky roads, quizzing frustrated and ambivalent Iraqis as the war rages on.

A few days before, insurgents had shot down a helicopter north of Baghdad and then butchered a crash survivor. A few days before that, insurgents attacked a Humvee ground convoy carrying McMaster himself by detonating a remote-controlled bomb. The blast killed Pfc. Joseph Knott, a gunner atop a Humvee in front of McMaster, and critically wounded Command Sgt. Maj. John Caldwell. McMaster directed counter fire and radioed for air support and medical evacuation.

"There is some risk" in leaving base camps, McMaster said now as the Blackhawk swooped south.

But he and other commanders speak confidently about U.S. operations around Iraq. "We can see the way ahead, we can see it clear as a bell," McMaster said. Commanders are convinced that, by working patiently with Iraqi soldiers to win "a battle for the population," U.S. troops can secure Iraq and eventually return home.

"The way you win this," he said, "is by helping the Iraqis win it."

Some in the ranks are frustrated, with insurgents killing hundreds of Iraqis and dozens of U.S. soldiers over the past month.

"These damn IEDs (improvised explosive devices)! We have all this technology, but we can't see 'em. We're fighting an invisible enemy. There's no way we can win," Pfc. Thouen Yen, 31, said after insurgents killed four U.S. soldiers in northwestern Iraq including two from the Colorado-based 3rd Armored Cavalry.

McMaster has a reputation as a commander who wouldn't be afraid to speak up if a mission were pointless or doomed. He wrote a book, "Dereliction of Duty," that argues U.S. commanders in Vietnam should have done more to expose deceptions by defense secretary Robert McNamara and President Lyndon Johnson that led to 50,000 deaths.

And so forth. It's a good, solid bit of war reporting, involving generals, privates, grand strategies, and civilian realities. This kind of craft used to be the reason people plunked down 15 cents for a daily newspaper. Now the paper costs 50 cents and the writing's nowhere near as good.

Capt. Andy Watson, working as a liaison with Iraqi troops, told how when the Iraqi soldiers approached Iraqi civilians in the area, civilians would ask: " 'Are you helping the Americans?' The Iraqi troops were like: 'No. They are helping us.' And the people, they dug the hell out of that."

McMaster grinned approvingly. U.S. troops were helping boost the legitimacy of Iraqi soldiers.

The soldiers asked for disposable cash to fund local projects, and for uniforms for their interpreters. McMaster said he'd try to deliver as soon as possible and praised his men for "an awesome job."

By the way, he added, Caldwell, the critically injured soldier, was at Walter Reed hospital in Washington, D.C., and "is breathing fine, responding."

Patrolling back up the Tigris toward south Baghdad, McMaster said there's nothing else he'd rather do.

"This is the best job in the Army," he said. "It's such a privilege to be here."