An Interview With Damien Lewis About Cobra Gold - Page 4

You are married and have two young children, is it time to hang up the war correspondent hat and settle down?

Well, I’m older and wiser now, and when I look back on some of the things I’ve done and I’m stunned by the risks I used to take as a matter of course. A few years back I was out filming somewhere with an ex-SAS guy as security. I often shoot my own material, and I was using the camera. In the bar that evening the ex-SAS guy told me something. He said: 'You guys are like us, only even more crazy.' He explained that whilst I was filming with my eye glued to the viewfinder, he had been alert and with eyes all around, a finger on the trigger of his gun. At least he could see trouble coming and react to it, and defend himself. I was a sitting target, and blind to it. The risks we, as war cameramen take, were worse. So, in answer to your question – yes, I’ve stopped doing the most crazy stuff. I’m still doing a good bit of war-related reporting, but I’m not longer so on the edge. If that constitutes hanging up the hat, then I guess I’ve done so...

I recently reviewed Matthew Carr’s excellent book about the history of terrorism. In summary, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Terrorism is a key theme in Cobra Gold, have you had any first-hand dealings?

I spent a year or more living with ‘freedom fighters’ in the Burmese jungles (some would call them terrorists). The Karen, Shan and other ethnic groups are fighting the savage military rule of the central dictatorship – so they’re fare from being ‘terrorists’ in my book. In that scenario the ruling regime are the real terrorists. But there are many shades of grey in this debate. I’ve been on countless trips into the Sudan war zone with the rebels from south, east, and west Sudan. Are they terrorists – when they’re fighting the Islamist dictatorship?

In both cases – Burma and Sudan – the rebels get much covert and some overt support from the Western powers. I’ve also infiltrated Islamist extremists circles in the UK and elsewhere, and learned of and experienced at first hand their fascist views and credo of hatred. Now in my book they are terrorists, because, if nothing else, their desire to fight and kill springs from a blind hatred and intolerance of the other – not from a desire to liberate and bring freedom and equality between races and peoples. If there is one thing that Kilbride and his band of men stand for in Cobra Gold, it is tolerance and freedom – to live and let live. We in the West tend to take it all for granted, and only when it is under threat do we start to value what we have.

Article Author: Simon Barrett

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