To Be a Friend Is Fatal (44 page)

DOS: Department of State

IOM: International Organization for Migration (the traditional OPE of the State Department)

IRMO: Iraq Reconstruction Management Office

ISI: Islamic State of Iraq

KBR: Kellogg, Brown & Root

MEK: Mujahideen-e Khalq

NDAA: National Defense Authorization Act

NSC: National Security Council

OPE: Overseas Processing Entity (organization contracted by the State Department to conduct refugee screening)

PCO: Project and Contracting Office

PRM: Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (at Department of State)

SIV: Special Immigrant Visa Program

UNHCR: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

USAID: US Agency for International Development

USCIS: US Citizenship and Immigration Service

USRAP: US Refugee Admissions Program

LZ: Landing Zone

MOAG: Mother of All Generators

MWR: Morale, Welfare, and Recreation tents on military bases

Al-Askari, Jafar Pasha.
A Soldier's Story: From Ottoman Rule to Independent Iraq
. Arabian Publishers, 2003.

Batatu, Hanna.
The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq
. London: Saqi Books, 2004.

Davis, Eric.
Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq
. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005.

Khadduri, Majid.
Socialist Iraq: A Study in Iraqi Politics Since 1968.
Washington, DC: Middle East Institute, 1978.

Khadduri, Majid, and Edmund Ghareeb.
War in the Gulf 1990–91: The Iraq–Kuwait Conflict and its Implications
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Nakash, Yitzhak.
The Shi'is of Iraq
. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Baker, James A. III, et al.
The Iraq Study Group Report
. New York: Vintage Books, 2006.

Bobbitt, Philip.
Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-first Century
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.

Chandrasekaran, Rajiv.
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

Chehab, Zaki.
Inside the Resistance: The Iraqi Insurgency and the Future of the Middle East
. New York: Nation Books, 2005.

Filkins, Dexter.
The Forever War
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.

Finkel, David.
The Good Soldiers
. New York: Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009.

Gordon, Michael R., and Bernard E. Trainor.
Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
. New York: Pantheon Books, 2006.

Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience
. Washington, DC: Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, 2009.

Hashim, Ahmed S.
Insurgency and Counter-insurgency in Iraq
. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.

Mayer, Jane.
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
. New York: Doubleday, 2008.

Miller, T. Christian.
Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq
. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006.

Packer, George.
The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq
. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.

Perry, Walter L., et al.
Withdrawing from Iraq: Alternative Schedules, Associated Risks, and Mitigating Strategies
. Santa Monica, CA: RAND/National Defense Research Institute, 2009.

Ricks, Thomas E.
The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006–2008
. New York: Penguin, 2009.

Rosen, Nir.
In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq
. New York: Free Press, 2006.

Shadid, Anthony.
Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War
. New York: Henry Holt, 2005.

Walzer, Michael, and Nicolaus Mills, eds.
Getting Out: Historical Perspectives on Leaving Iraq
. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.

West, Bing.
No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle For Fallujah
. New York: Bantam Books, 2005.

Amos, Deborah.
Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East
. New York: PublicAffairs, 2010.

US Department of State and the Broadcasting Board of Governors, Office of Inspector General, Middle East Regional Office. “Status of U.S. Refugee Resettlement Processing for Iraqi Nationals.” MERO-IQO-08-02, May 2008.

US Government Accountability Office. “Iraqi Refugees and Special Immigrant Visa Holders Face Challenges Resettling in the United States and Obtaining U.S. Government Employment.” GAO-10-274, March 9, 2010.

Coleman, Bradley Lynn.
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume X: Vietnam, January 1973–July 1975
. DIANE Publishing, 2012.

Halberstam, David.
The Best and the Brightest
. New York: Modern Library, 2001.

Herr, Michael.
Dispatches
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.

Logevall, Fredrik.
Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam
. New York: Random House, 2012.

Memoranda of Conversations, 1973–1977. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum, Ann Arbor, MI.
http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/guides/findingaid/Memoranda_of_Conversations.asp#Ford
.

Ninh, Bào.
The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam
. New York: Pantheon Books, 1995.

Sheehan, Neil.
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
. New York: Modern Library, 2009.

Snepp, Frank.
Decent Interval: An Insider's Account of Saigon's Indecent End
. New York: Random House, 1977.

Breitman, Richard, Barbara McDonald Stewart, and Severin Hochberg, eds.
Advocate for the Doomed: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1932–1935
. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007.

———.
Refugees and Rescue: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1935–1945
. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2009.

Paldiel, Mordecai.
Diplomat Heroes of the Holocaust
. Jersey City, NJ: Ktav Publishers, 2007.

Crapanzano, Vincent.
The Harkis: The Wound That Never Heals
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Horne, Alistair.
A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954–1962
. New York: Viking Press, 1978.

Jasanoff, Maya.
Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.

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Readers are also encouraged to join Netroots on thelistproject.org, where thousands of Americans have formed chapters in order to help newly resettled Iraqis transition to their new lives.

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   READING GROUP GUIDE

1. In
To Be a Friend Is Fatal
,
Kirk W. Johnson recounts the stories of numerous Iraqis who stepped forward to assist the United States during the course of the Iraq War. Did any particular story stand out to you?

2. In chapter 2, we are introduced to Yaghdan, on the eve of the war. Were you surprised by any aspects of Iraq's pre-2003 history? How do you think Yaghdan's life experiences affected his decision to help the Americans?

3. Kirk describes how his impressions of life in the Green Zone changed his perspective on the US government's efforts in Iraq. What did he find there, and what did it compel him to do?

4. In “USGspeak,” Kirk describes the orientation given to newly arrived American USAID staffers. What lessons can we draw from the way in which the agency's Iraqi employees were discussed?

5. There wasn't always a stigma in Iraq surrounding the Iraqis who worked for the Americans. What caused the Iraqi public's opinions to harden against those who assisted the US?

6. What does the story of MOAG, the Mother of All Generators, reveal about how the Americans tried to rebuild Iraq?

7. What stands out the most from Kirk's description of Fallujah?

8. After Kirk's accident in the Dominican Republic he faces months of recovery, but he harbors a wish to return to Fallujah as quickly as possible. Why do you think he wanted to go back?

9. In “The Insurgent of West Chicago,” Kirk struggles to make sense of what America has done in Iraq. Imagine another country invaded the United States and occupied your hometown, all while informing you that they were there to help you. How do you think you would react?

10. Kirk describes his struggle with posttraumatic stress and depression following the accident. Do you know anyone who has experienced PTSD? Do you think his condition influenced his reaction to the desperate emails he received from Iraqi colleagues?

11. What do you remember most about Zina from her story in “Pod 23”? Why do you think she was motivated to work for the Americans? Why couldn't she and her family just stay inside Iraq or in a neighboring country?