I have never been able to let Iraq go. It is a part of me. Even under Saddam Hussein, even despite what the country went through, and despite how violent and tribal it can be, there is still a certain purity to the kindness of the population.

I think the desire to be a journalist started post-911. I'm Syrian American. I speak fluent Arabic. I'd come back to the States for college. I went to Skidmore in upstate New York. I was coming from Turkey, and I'd noticed that I could talk about concepts and ideas and people who seemed foreign to Americans, and they were interested in what I had to say. I think some of it is maybe because I'm very unassuming and I look American, but I'm very much from there as well so I can speak with authority about all of these issues.

To be fearless is to be reckless. I think you need a certain level of fear because you need to respect the danger and the minute you stop sensing fear, that's the minute you stop respecting the danger, and that's when things can happen. Obviously, you can't panic. It can't be overwhelming. It can't be paralyzing. You always need to have that pit in your stomach. You always need to have that awareness about you.

We need to continue to strive to tell these different stories.”

I think we need to be human. Nobody is objective. We need to go in and be human - especially today, especially given everything that's happening around us, especially given the divides between populations that are growing and what's at stake in terms of our collective humanity, and the fact that our moral compass is broken.

There are certain realities about the world we live in. Syria and Iraq are just not going to get on air every day. For us as journalists, we're still trying to navigate this world. Journalism is changing. How do we tell our stories - especially with the wars that have continued for so long? How do we keep it relevant?

I have never been able to let Iraq go. It is a part of me. Even under Saddam Hussein, even despite what the country went through, and despite how violent and tribal it can be, there is still a certain purity to the kindness of the population.