As the advent of an attack on Iraq approaches, a young Egyptian man working in the Gulf decides to take up a freelance job as a field translator for the L.A. Times and unsuspectingly embarks on an electrifying roller-coaster ride from Kuwait City to Baghdad. What was to happen to him and his team for the following three months is documented in his book Baghdad Bound. This is a gripping account of the remarkable events that he witnessed before and during the Iraq War: The danger of frontline reporting Dodging bullets and translating between reporters and Iraqis, the author recounts in detail the escape of BBC, CBC, Newsweek, and other news network crews from the Iraqi border after the threat of being besieged by a group of disgruntled and armed locals. The devastation of the lives of Iraqi civilians From Basra to Baghdad, a direct look at the horror of living in fear of coalition bombs as well as Saddam loyalists. The author begins to understand their psychological trauma after a first-hand look at casualties of war and along the way, discovers the real face of the Ba'athi regime. The aftermath In a lawless land, chaos reigns supreme as Iraqis, coalition forces and journalists struggle to make sense of post-war Iraq. The author recounts the mayhem of looting and rubs shoulders with Shi'a leaders and Iraqi exiles like Ahmed Chalabi vying for power while Saddam is on the loose. Of all the books that have been published about the Iraq War, Baghdad Bound is a first. A mosaic of thrilling untold stories from the theatre of war, it is an earnest and unique collection of the action-packed memoirs of an Arab interpreter who finds himself caught in an intricate web involving the CIA, the L.A. Times, and Iraqis of various walks of life. Here is a raw view of the war through the eyes of a regular man who stumbled into a defining chapter of modern history...

Presents the findings of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which was formed in 2006 to examine the situation in Iraq and offer suggestions for the American military's future involvement in the region.

Deployed to Iraq in March 2004 after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, US Marine Michael Zacchea thought he had landed a plum assignment. His team's mission was to build, train, and lead in combat the first Iraqi Army battalion trained by the US military. Quickly, he realized he was faced with a nearly impossible task. With just two weeks' training based on outdated and irrelevant materials, no language instruction, and few cultural tips for interacting with his battalion of Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, Yazidis, and others, Zacchea arrived at his base in Kirkush to learn his recruits would need beds, boots, uniforms, and equipment. His Iraqi officer counterparts spoke little English. He had little time to transform his troops—mostly poor, uneducated farmers—into a cohesive rifle battalion that would fight a new insurgency erupting across Iraq. In order to stand up a fighting battalion, Zacchea knew, he would have to understand his men. Unlike other combat Marines in Iraq at the time, he immersed himself in Iraq's culture: learning its languages, eating its foods, observing its traditions—even being inducted into one of its Sunni tribes. A constant source of both pride and frustration, the Iraqi Army Fifth Battalion went on to fight bravely at the Battle of Fallujah against the forces that would eventually form ISIS. The Ragged Edge is Zacchea's deeply personal and powerful account of hopeful determination, of brotherhood and betrayal, and of cultural ignorance and misunderstanding. It sheds light on the dangerous pitfalls of training foreign troops to fight murderous insurgents and terrorists, precisely when such wartime collaboration is happening more than at any other time in US history.

Modern Iraq is under threat from every quarter. Politics play havoc with ordinary lives; sanctions cut deep. However, today's rare visitors are met with a broad hospitality that belies years of deprivation

This edited volume provides an overview on US involvement in Iraq from the 1958 Iraqi coup to the present-day, offering a deeper context to the current conflict. Using a range of innovative methods to interrogate US foreign policy, ideology and culture, the book provides a broad set of reflections on past, present and future implications of US-Iraqi relations, and especially the strategic implications for US policy-making. In doing so, it examines several key aspects of relationship such as: the 1958 Iraqi Revolution; the impact of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War; the impact of the Nixon Doctrine on the regional balance of power; US attempts at rapprochement during the 1980s; the 1990-91 Gulf War; and, finally, sanctions and inspections. Analysis of the contemporary Iraq crisis sets US plans against the ‘reality’ they faced in the country, and explores both attempts to bring security to Iraq, and the implications of failure.

Iraq Investment and Business Guide - Strategic and Practical Information