In the Belly of the Green Bird...

In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq (Hardcover)
by Nir Rosen

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If you want to know what is really going on in the Iraq "insurgency" and among the Iraqi people -- vis a vis the U.S. occupation -- read this extraordinary book by journalist Nir Rosen.

We interviewed Rosen recently (and we will be posting it shortly), and were first of all amazed that he survived his journalistic forays into the underside of Iraq, when so many other reporters have been killed or kidnapped.

But Rosen is young, resourceful, ambitious and speaks Arabic. He knew how to gain the trust of all sides to the conflicts among Iraqi factions -- and to the conflict against our unfortunate U.S. forces, placed in harm's way by a stubborn, doltish, failed president (working under the direction of a bitter, non-reality-based vice-president).

On one level, we hear the propaganda narrative cooked up by Rove and the Pentagon. As you read Rosen's riveting book, you are exposed to the reality that is the real narrative of this "war" -- and it doesn't even remotely resemble the White House "story line" on Iraq, not even within a thousand miles of it.

In short, except for the so-called Iraqi "government" officials, there are very few Iraqis who want an American presence. We are now perceived by all the fratricidal warring parties within Iraq as occupiers (except, perhaps, for the Kurds, who are pretty much self-ruling at this point.) Even if an Iraqi is not an insurgent, they probably have a relative or friend killed or injured by our armed forces -- and so we are oppressors, not liberators to them.

Make no mistake about this. After reading Rosen's detailed and courageous book, you will never be under even the slightest illusion again that we are in Iraq to provide freedom, liberty and democracy. We are in Iraq due to Bush and Cheney's perceived interests that benefit American foreign and oil policy, not the interests of the Iraqis. And, at this point, Bush and Cheney are also playing on the white male need to feel "victorious" in any situation, as if this were a football game.

And the Iraqis are not dumb. Since tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed by the all sides in the pit of horror kindled by Bush's invasion, they don't generally believe for a moment the platitudes Bush mouths for domestic American political consumption.

Rosen achieved remarkable access to so many people whose names and causes are just rendered into caricatures by the Bush propaganda machine. Finally, you get a chance to see them fleshed out.

In the end, you are left convinced that Bush is using our soldiers as pawns in an unwinnable war against a diverse "enemy." Nationalism, religious views and revenge are more at work in the attacks on our soldiers than al-Qaeda terrorism. Bush just focuses on al-Qaeda because it is the psychological hot button that connects all of his misadventures to 9/11, even though there is no connection to the people in Iraq. Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11. Al-Zarqawi, as bad as he was, had nothing to do with 9/11.

The man who was responsible for 9/11 is safely ensconced in Pakistan, we are told, due to Bush's failure to focus on conducting a real attempt to stop terrorism. Instead, as Rosen reports from the real Iraq, Bush has created a monstrous battle among diverse forces, all of whom want the U.S. military out of their country as they continue to fight each other.

Nir Rosen's writings have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Time, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Magazine, and The New Republic, among other publications. He lives with his wife in Istanbul and is a fellow at the New America Foundation.

This is fearless reporting, an eye into Iraq that you won't find in the mainstream daily coverage, with few exceptions.

Rosen is a reality-based reporter. Reading "In the Belly of the Green Bird," you realize how rare that is nowadays.

And he's a courageous son of a gun to boot, in the spirit of Hemingway.

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