Baghdad Bulletin

Baghdad Bulletin is a street-level account of the war and turbulent postwar period as seen through the eyes of the young independent journalist David Enders. The book recounts Enders's story of his decision to go to Iraq, where he opened the only English-language newspaper completely written, printed, and distributed there during the war.

Young, courageous, and anti-authoritarian, Enders is the first reporter to cover the war as experienced by ordinary Iraqis. Deprived of the press credentials that gave his embedded colleagues access to press conferences and officially sanitized information, Enders tells the story of a different war, outside the Green Zone. It is a story in which the struggle of everyday life is interspersed with moments of sheer terror and bizarre absurdity: wired American troops train their guns on terrified civilians; Iraqi musicians prepare a recital for Coalition officials who never show; traveling clowns wreak havoc in a Baghdad police station.

Orphans and intellectuals, activists and insurgents: Baghdad Bulletin depicts the unseen complexity of Iraqi society and gives us a powerful glimpse of a new kind of warfare, one that coexists with—and sometimes tragically veers into—the everyday rhythms of life.

Praise / Awards

• "I wrote my first piece for Baghdad Bulletin after visiting the mass graves at Al-Hilla in 2003. The Baghdad Bulletin was essential reading in the first few months after the end of the war. I handed that particular copy to Prime Minister Tony Blair. I am only sorry that I cannot read it anymore. David Enders and his team were brave, enterprising and idealistic."
  —Rt Hon Ann Clwyd MP

• "Young and tenacious, Dave Enders went, saw and wrote it down. Here it is: a well-informed and detailed tale of Iraq's decline under American rule. Baghdad Bulletin offers a vista of tragic politics, real people and keen insights about what actually matters on the ground in Iraq."
  —Christian Parenti, Nation correspondent and author of The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq

• "David Enders has a stunning independent streak and the courage to trust his own perceptions as he reports from outside the bubble Americans have created for themselves in Iraq."
  —Joe Sacco, author of Safe Area Gorazde

• "David Enders writes with a keen eye for tragedy, mendacity and absurdity. Baghdad Bulletin takes us where mainstream news accounts do not go. Disrupting the easy cliches that dominate U.S. journalism, Enders blows away the media fog of war. The result is a book that challenges Americans to see through doublespeak and reconsider the warfare being conducted in their names."
  —Norman Solomon, author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death

• "Journalism at its finest and on a shoestring to boot - David Enders shows that courage and honesty can outshine big budget mainstream media. Wry but self critical, Baghdad Bulletin tells a story that a few of us experienced but every journalist, nay every citizen, should read."
  —Pratap Chatterjee, Managing Editor/Project Director CorpWatch

• "His tone is laconic, mordantly witty, and the book is superbly paced, sometimes breathless."
  —Telegraph

• "For courses/classes focusing especially on the media, Enders's book is certainly an insightful read."
  —Multicultural Review