General William Tecumseh Sherman, in his address to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy (19 June 1879) spoke of War : You don't know the horrible aspects of war. I've been through two wars and I know. I've seen cities and homes in ashes. I've seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is Hell!

When I think of Hell, I don't think of it as an ethereal place you go to after you die. I think of hell as one of the many places our violence, greed, hatred has created and made very real here on Earth. One of those places is Iraq and we have the privilege of having Gaith Abdul-Ahad's coverage of the hell that used to be his home for a series he produced for The Guardian. Gaith produced a series of videos, photographs and articles called Five years in Iraq, to mark the 5 years of the occupation and war.

To say that Gaith's work is invaluable is to put it mildly. Before publishing this post, I wrote back at my blog how difficult it has been to find any reports by Iraqi citizens from within Iraq. There are thousands of video blogs by US soldiers and other members of the occupation forces. There are thousands of videos by the cornucopia of insurgencies and counter-insurgencies in Iraq. There are even more videos from people all around the world adding their 2 cents about the war in Iraq. Yet, simple videos from camera phones or even random home videos are almost nowhere to be found.

Gaith's videos are the closest I've seen to the kind of simple, straight and authentic Iraqi journalism that is missing from the cacophony of voices shouting about Iraq for the last 5 years. Why? Journalists are being murdered by the scores:

Iraqi journalists, like local journalists all over the world, don't have the luxury of leaving the country every few weeks at the end of their stint. The few who do get to leave the country end up like refugees -  drinking heavily in London pubs before being dragged back into the inferno.

The idea of independent Iraqi journalism is being killed only two years after it was born - a little of it dying with each of the brave 37 people. Iraqi journalists are being killed by the Americans, the insurgents, the militias and the police. They are often intimidated and threatened by anyone who doesn't like their coverage. There are no ground rules for them. They won't be allowed the luxuries of a fast car and a bodyguard; often, they have houses and families in the local area. And, they can be located easily, which is why they are often in the firing line.

Gaith came close to becoming another Iraqi journalist casualty of the war. Without his courage, we wouldn't have these wonderful gifts of his reports from Iraq, his home and the world's newest hell.