The Wake of War

I heard an interview on "Worldview" with Anne Nivat yesterday. She is author of The Wake of War : Encounters in Iraq and Afghanistan. Listen to the hour long program here. Here's a description of her book from Amazon:

In the spring of 2003, acclaimed journalist Anne Nivat set off from Tajikistan on a six-month journey through the aftermath of the American invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. As with her prizewinning work reporting the lives of ordinary Chechens during their war, Nivat felt compelled to meet and write about the lives of everyday people—not just the voices at the center of the conflict, but also those in small towns and along roadways.

She spoke to engineers and teachers, ex-military men and rising leaders, an actor and a former Taliban member; she stayed with Kurdish and Shi"a and Turkoman families; and all along the way, she recorded their stories. We meet Hamid, a prosperous engineer who rails against the United States and against Afghanistan"s passive cooperation with the superpower. A powerful warlord keeps an extraordinary rose garden in the midst of the desert, and an Afghani gynecologist, having devoted her life to the health of Afghan women, has never touched even the hand of a man. In Iraqi Kurdistan we learn that hummus is unknown and see the after-effects of Saddam Hussein"s policy of Arabization: one young Kurdish leader declares that "The Arabs are barbarians by nature, their culture is nothing but thievery, looting, and killing!" In Iraqi Kurdistand we learn that hummus is unknown and see the aftereffects of Saddam Hussein"s policy of Arabization: One young Kurdish leader declares that "the Arabs are barbarians by nature; their culture is nothing but thievery, looting, and killing!" But in Kirkuk, a Turkoman claims the Kurds behave "just like the dictator who oppressed them." Near Basra we meet Adnan Karim Bhaya, an ex-admiral who proudly recounts his battles against the Iranians and later against British allied troops, but who now finds himself stripped of his military status and living on his wife"s salary.

Throughout, Nivat allows each person to speak in his or her own voice without interposing her presence on their words—words of hope, sadness, anger, and, above all, the uncertainty that fills their everyday lives.

These kinds of books are so important especially in reporting on Occupation. The news accounts we hear of life in Iraq is all carefully filtered. We are constantly reminded that we are in a battle between good and evil and that we need to pray for our soldiers because our cause is just. This credo ties our hands from criticizing the deaths of innocents. This is the same old way we justified every major war in history and attrocities such as the bombings of Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.

There is another side. Its the side of citizens just trying to go about their daily lives being who they are. And that's what this interview and book are about.