Where is our Orwell?

A few days ago on the Guardian website (UK) a journalist asked this question. Leaving aside why he didn't ask it of himself, it's still something worth asking. Four years on since the invasion of Iraq and few journalists from the West are working in the country. Certainly the old idea of novelists trying to write about these massive events has all but disappeared on any credible level.

Many things have been lost in the tragedy; it is also true that free speech, the cornerstone of this 'democracy' Bush claims to be bringing, has not been found. It's too dangerous to be a journalist in Iraq and it is unfair to compare their situation to previous wars, where the enemies and objectives were clearer. Journalists are now pawns for the weak as well as the strong; as likely to be abducted by militias as manipulated by governments. It's sad but so is the whole thing.

But still, some venture. Patrick Cornwell of the Independent being the most notable one. He has worked around Iraq since the beginning. Is he our Orwell? He must be close. The question of course is not simply about names. It's about courage and guts. You need to be a bit nuts. Who is willing to put their neck on the line for often derided causes, for truth, liberty and justice, things that lazy hotel journalists sneer at, things that 'realists' find a way around and things that our doubtless being repressed from Iraq today.

Another who had the spirit of Orwell was Anna Politkovskaya. She was murdered last year, shot in an elevator. Here's an interview from her last book.