In a email Q&A with the Huffington Post from Afghanistan, NBC “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams discusses his recent experience there and his experience covering the war. Writing from a “dimly-lit room inside a barricaded, heavily-protected compound in Kabul,” Williams responds:
To be in my job for the past 5 years and NOT have a ground-level familiarity with both of our nation’s ongoing wars would be reckless, I think. Getting to know the military — sleeping where they sleep, eating what they eat, going on patrol with them, learning about their lives here and at home — has been one of the great blessings of my life…and anybody who knows me knows I feel that way. Its one thing to post an opinion on the web about what the U.S. is doing here, from the comfort and safety of home…and its quite another to be here and experience it…and come back and do it again and again. For all the pejoratives attached to the MSM label, it also means we have the money and means to get over here and report what we see and experience. Our viewers can make their own judgments. That’s the way its supposed to work.