I Have Iraq in My Shoe

I Have Iraq in My Shoe
Author: Gretchen Berg
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2012-05-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1402265808

"I am not moving to Iraq to teach." How does a liberal American girl in red suede boots end up teaching English to conservative Muslim Iraqis in headscarves? Gretchen Berg has met the recession: she has eaten cereal for dinner, given up the gym membership, and come face to face with looming unemployment. To cope, she decided to uproot her life and move to the Middle East. She expected to make some good money, pay off some bad debt, and take some photos of camels. She did not expect to feel at home. She did not expect to fall for a student. She did not expect Diet Coke withdrawal. Irreverent, hilarious, and completely relevant, I Have Iraq in My Shoe takes a single, broke, fashion-conscious American female who prefers Project Runaway to CNN and tosses her into Iraq in exchange for cash and vacation time. Watch the desert sand fly!

Dancing in the No-fly Zone

Dancing in the No-fly Zone
Author: Hadani Ditmars
Publisher:
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2006
Genre: Cooking
ISBN:

When Ditmars first went to Iraq in 1997 for the "New York Times," she saw beauty, architecture, and music in the midst of despair. Ditmars traveled to Iraq again and again, reporting on every aspect of life. Featuring tales of her visits, this book captures the full humanity of a people who have suffered much yet have maintained a spirit of resilience. Photos.

To Be a Friend Is Fatal

To Be a Friend Is Fatal
Author: Kirk W. Johnson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2013-09-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1476710503

The “searing” (The New Yorker), “must read” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) memoir of “one of the few genuine heroes of America’s war in Iraq” (Dexter Filkins). In January 2005 Kirk Johnson, then twenty-four, arrived in Baghdad as USAID’s (US Agency for International Development) only Arabic-speaking American employee. Despite his opposition to the war, Johnson felt called to civic duty and wanted to help rebuild Iraq. Working as the USAID’s first reconstruction coordinator in Fallujah, he traversed the city’s IED-strewn streets, working alongside idealistic Iraqi translators—young men and women sick of Saddam, filled with Hollywood slang, and enchanted by the idea of a peaceful, democratic Iraq. It was not to be. As sectarian violence escalated, Iraqis employed by the US coalition found themselves subject to a campaign of kidnapping, torture, and assassination. On his first brief vacation, Johnson, swept into what doctors later described as a “fugue state,” crawled onto the ledge outside his hotel window and plunged off. He would spend the next year in an abyss of depression, surgery, and PTSD—crushed by having failed in Iraq. One day, Johnson received an email from an Iraqi friend, Yaghdan: People are trying to kill me and I need your help. That email launched Johnson’s now seven-year mission to get help from the US government for Yaghdan and thousands of abandoned Iraqis like him. To Be a Friend Is Fatal is Kirk W. Johnson’s “truly incredible” (Ira Glass) portrait of the human rubble of war and his efforts to redeem a shameful chapter of American history. “It is difficult to imagine a book more urgent than this” (The Boston Globe).

Collateral Damage

Collateral Damage
Author: Chris Hedges
Publisher: Bold Type Books
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2009-02-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0786743719

Collateral Damage brings together testimony from the largest number of on the record, named, combat veterans who reveal the disturbing, daily reality of war and occupation in Iraq. Through their eyes, we learn how the mechanics of war lead to the abuse and frequent killing of innocents. They describe convoys of vehicles roaring down roads, smashing into cars, and hitting Iraqi civilians. They detail raids that leave families shot dead in the mayhem. And they describe a battlefield in which troops, untrained to distinguish between combatants and civilians, are authorized to shoot whenever they feel threatened.

Preemptive Love

Preemptive Love
Author: Jeremy Courtney
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2014-09-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1476733651

The founder of the Preemptive Love Coalition, an organization based in Iraq that provides heart surgeries to Iraqi children and trains local doctors and nurses, presents an account of lifesaving and peacemaking in this war-torn country.

Winter Soldier, Iraq and Afghanistan

Winter Soldier, Iraq and Afghanistan
Author: Iraq Veterans Against the War
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2008
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1931859655

"In spring 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War gathered outside Washington, D.C., and testified to atrocities they personally committed or witnessed while deployed in the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. In this book are the powerful words, images, and documents of this historic event." "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan preserves and honors the participants' courageous contributions in order to ensure that people around the world remember their stories and struggles. The book's documentation includes the testimonies of dozens of veterans addressing such issues as the U.S. military's callous disregard for civilian life, the torture of detainees, the culture of racism that's inherent in a military occupation, gender discrimination, and the health crisis facing today's veterans."--BOOK JACKET.

Operator

Operator
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 34
Release: 1983
Genre: Military supplies
ISBN:

The Price of Freedom

The Price of Freedom
Author: Kingsley Uzukwu
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2009-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 144903831X

The Price of Freedom, which is part one honorable Marine/Veteran's memoir of a riveting wartime experience in Iraq and other part political commentary, offers a clarion call to freedom loving people in the world, in particular Americans, Iraqis and Nigerians. With candor The Price of Freedom sheds light on the Superman myth of the U.S. Marine, and why for some in the armed services it has become awkward to open up and share battle scars. Kingsley Uzukwu, has crafted a powerful cathartic work, which honors fallen soldiers and promises to be balm for some loved ones, for others an unleash of salty tears and yet for another an aha moment or even still a battle cry. He offers an authentic voice, crying in the wilderness. He speaks in plain terms of how Iraqi Freedom has impacted us all to become "casualties," He paints with broad strokes the tender lives of World Trade Center casualties, the uncensored lives of Marines and delicate blossoms of friendship and love. He weaves an unforgettable account, sometimes hauntingly eerie. He fittingly portrays Marines as responsible leaders and salutes his Marine comrades in penning The Price of Freedom. He showcases the full complement/leadership skill set, including intelligence, communication, technology, decision making and problem solving in tactical environments, possessed by Marines. With surgical precision he describes our troops and their rigorous training to adhere to appropriate rule of engagement and escalation of force. The author addresses moral and ethical dilemmas (e.g. What difference, if any, exists between killing and murder in war?) coupled with leadership beyond national boundaries, though he points out a U.S. visa to be at a premium in Nigeria and highlights the prize that full U.S. citizenship holds for others in the world.