War and Gold

"The Wall Street Journal's" Middle Eastern Bureau Chief's wrenching portrait of ordinary contemporary Iraqis possessed by the 'genie of terrorism, chaos and mayhem' unleashed by the American invasion. The story of the what has happened in Iraq since 2003 has been told by journalists embedded with th [...]
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"The Wall Street Journal's" Middle Eastern Bureau Chief's wrenching portrait of ordinary contemporary Iraqis possessed by the 'genie of terrorism, chaos and mayhem' unleashed by the American invasion. The story of the what has happened in Iraq since 2003 has been told by journalists embedded with the military, (O'Donnell, "We Were One", Wright "Generation Kill", and numerous others), inside the Green Zone (Chandrasekaran, "Imperial Life in the Emerald City"), and those analyzing the military's movements and political misjudgements from the outside (Ricks, "Fiasco"), by military historians (Keegan, W. Clark), by Iraqi politicians debating strategy (Allawi, "The Occupation of Iraq"), by academics analyzing religious conflicts (Nasr, "The Shia Revival") and a host of others eager to illustrate how Americans were duped into the war in the first place (Ricks and Isikoff). Yet almost no one has spoken at length to the constituency that represents Iraq's last best hope for a stable country: its ordinary working and middle class.Journalist Fassihi's objective is not to follow military or political strategy, but to report from the streets and cafes, as well as the homes and compounds of Iraqis as they come to terms with life after Saddam. Through a memorable cast of characters - from art gallery owners to clairvoyants, taxi drivers, and radicalized teenagers - Fassihi portrays the very kinds of people whose goodwill the US required for occupation to succeed. The failure of that occupation - which Fassihi reported ahead of any other US journalist in her memorable leaked e-mail in 2004 - is no less shocking for being inevitable. "Waiting for an Ordinary Day" illustrates just how gross the misjudgment of Iraq has proven to be, and its devastating alienation of an entire culture. Fassihi tells us what has happened to Iraq after America easily won the first battlefield, and the devastating ramifications of subsequently ignoring the hearts and minds of its ordinary men and women.