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Dexter Filkins Quotes

Powerful Dexter Filkins for Daily Growth

About Dexter Filkins

Dexter Filkins is an award-winning American journalist, foreign correspondent, and author, best known for his extensive work covering conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. Born on June 8, 1962, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Filkins developed a passion for storytelling at an early age. He graduated from Yale University with a degree in History in 1984. Filkins' journalistic career began in 1987 when he joined The New York Times as a correspondent in Boston. His first significant assignment was covering the Iran-Iraq war, which sparked his interest in the Middle East. In 1990, Filkins moved to the Cairo bureau of The New York Times, where he covered the Gulf War and its aftermath. In 2003, Filkins was one of the first journalists to arrive in Iraq following the invasion, setting the stage for his groundbreaking coverage of the conflict's ensuing years. His reports from Baghdad earned him the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 2009. Filkins has also been a correspondent in Afghanistan, where he covered the U.S.-led intervention following the September 11 attacks. In 2015, his book "The Forever War" was published, detailing his experiences covering the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan over more than a decade. Filkins' work has been recognized with numerous awards, including three Pulitzer Prizes, two George Polk Awards, and a National Magazine Award. Despite the danger and hardship inherent in war reporting, Filkins continues to pursue his passion for shedding light on global conflicts and their impact on people's lives. His work serves as a vital resource for understanding the complexities of modern conflict zones and their influence on geopolitics.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"War is not a video game, it's real life."

This quote by Dexter Filkins serves to emphasize that war is not an abstract or virtual reality, but a profoundly impactful event in the lives of real people. It reminds us that wars are not games with imaginary consequences, but they involve loss, suffering, and transformation for individuals and societies. The sentiment encourages empathy, understanding, and respect for those affected by conflicts, and it underscores the importance of approaching discussions about war and peace with gravity and sensitivity.

"Journalism is not a heroic profession, but it can be a noble one."

This quote emphasizes that journalism may lack the typical characteristics associated with heroism (like physical bravery or self-sacrifice), yet it has the potential to embody nobility. Nobility in this context could refer to upholding truth, ethics, and the pursuit of knowledge for the benefit of society, often at personal risk or inconvenience. The quote suggests that journalists should strive for these noble ideals while acknowledging that their work may not involve traditional heroic acts.

"Covering wars is a terrible way to learn about human nature."

This quote by Dexter Filkins suggests that war, as a violent and destructive event, may not provide a comprehensive or accurate view of human nature. The adversity, fear, and conflict experienced in war can distort the perception of humanity's inherent qualities such as kindness, cooperation, empathy, and resilience. Instead, it highlights our capacity for cruelty, aggression, and survival instincts. While wars can reveal some aspects of human nature, they may not accurately represent the full spectrum of human potential and behavior in peaceful times or under different circumstances.

"The first casualty when war comes is truth."

This quote suggests that in times of war or conflict, the truth often becomes the first victim, as information can be manipulated, distorted, or suppressed to serve specific agendas. It underscores the importance of investigative journalism, critical thinking, and a commitment to uncovering and disseminating accurate information during periods of conflict, to ensure that history is not rewritten by those who would seek to control it.

"It's in the chaos of war that you see the best and worst of humanity."

This quote by Dexter Filkins captures the duality inherent in conflict zones, where the extremes of human nature become vividly apparent. It suggests that war, with its devastation and violence, can reveal both the profound acts of courage, compassion, and resilience people are capable of, as well as the depths of depravity and inhumanity they may stoop to. Essentially, it underscores the complex and often contradictory nature of humanity in times of war.

It's so jarring to go from Baghdad to Cambridge, to go from a place where people are fighting and striving and dying to a place where the biggest concern is what kind of cheese to put in your sandwich.

- Dexter Filkins

Kind, Go, Baghdad, Striving

In war, people find themselves in extraordinary circumstances, and in those circumstances, they act in extraordinary ways. In war, you see people at their very best and their very worst, acting in ways you could never imagine. War is human drama at its most epic and most intense.

- Dexter Filkins

Best, Drama, Very, Epic

The expectation in the Obama Administration, or at least the hope, is that a nuclear deal with the West could ultimately moderate Iranian behavior by helping to integrate the country more thoroughly into the international system. Will this happen? It's impossible to predict, of course. We will only know if we get there.

- Dexter Filkins

Country, Deal, Iranian, Integrate

The American surge of combat forces into Baghdad that was ordered by President Bush worked. And there was a calm, a relative calm that descended on the country kind of late 2008. That pretty much held until the last American combat soldiers left at the end of 2011.

- Dexter Filkins

Country, Held, Bush, Descended

It is one of the great ironies of the American war in Iraq - was that the guys who really got the most out of it were the Iranians. And they have us to thank for that. Yeah, I mean we basically put Maliki in power in 2006, but he has been - he's really not a friend of the United States. He's a friend of the Iranian regime.

- Dexter Filkins

United, Been, Iranian, Iranians

The overriding goal of counterinsurgency is to make friends: You make friends with the people; you isolate the insurgents.

- Dexter Filkins

Goal, Isolate, Make, Overriding

The whole kind of post-World War I settlement that formed the modern Middle East is in danger of collapsing, and we can - we, the United States, you know, the preeminent power in the world - we can say that we want to ignore that, but how long can we avert our gaze? And how long can we stay out?

- Dexter Filkins

World War I, United, Whole, Gaze

Any American who has spent time in Iraq or Afghanistan will tell you: the closer you get, the less certain you are of anything. If you are in Iraq, if you are in Afghanistan, everything is ambiguous. Everything is murky and gray and uncertain and possibly lethal.

- Dexter Filkins

Will, Tell, Spent, Possibly

Let me just say, I think there's a reasonable criticism to be made of the Obama administration on the way that it left Iraq.

- Dexter Filkins

Think, Reasonable, I Think, Obama Administration

I think - I think the real nightmare place now is less Afghanistan than it is Pakistan. I mean, again, Pakistan is this gigantic country, deeply troubled, kind of almost ungovernable, sitting on top of probably 50 or 60 nuclear warheads. Nobody really knows where the warheads are; the Americans certainly don't know where they are.

- Dexter Filkins

Country, I Think, Almost, Troubled

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