To Be a Friend Is Fatal (45 page)

12. Why do you think the United States was so reluctant to grant visas to its former Iraqi employees? Do you think the circumstances in Afghanistan are any different?

13. What do you think of the people who work in the refugee resettlement bureaucracy in the Departments of State and Homeland Security? Does their slow process—which may take years to clear a single case—represent a moral failing?

14. What are the historical analogues that Kirk brings up in “Past Is Prologue”? Can you think of any other historical situations that relate to these issues? Who said “To be an enemy of the United States is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal”? To what group of people was he referring?

15. Why do you think our allies in Iraq and Afghanistan—the United Kingdom, Denmark, Poland, Australia, and Germany—were able to put their Iraqi and Afghan employees on military flights and rescue them with relative ease? Why do you think America responded to the same issue so differently?

16. What is Blackstone's Formulation, and how does it apply to the moral dilemma posed by helping Iraqis who worked for America?

17. Each year, tens of thousands of Americans die on the highways. Tens of thousands die in gun violence. Yet according to National Counterterrorism Center statistics, Americans are more likely to be crushed to death by their own furniture than to be killed in a terrorist act. Why do you think Americans respond so differently to the threat of terrorism than to other types of risk?

18. Do you think
To Be a Friend Is Fatal
is a story about success or failure? If you were Kirk, how would you know when “enough is enough” and it is time to move on to another focus in life?

19. Do you think that the United States has learned anything from Iraq, or from the fate of the Iraqis who worked alongside it? Do you think America will act differently in future wars?

© ANNETTE HORNISCHER

KIRK W. JOHNSON
is a graduate of the University of Chicago, a Fulbright Scholar, and the recipient of fellowships from the American Academy in Berlin, the MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo. His writing has appeared in the
New York Times
, the
Los Angeles Times
, and the
Wall Street Journal
. Founder of the List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies, Johnson lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

kirkwjohnson.com

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Page numbers of photographs appear in italics.

abaya
(robe),
213

ABC World News
:

Johnson and Kennedy profile,
192
–94

Johnson interview,
191
–92

Sauerbrey interview,
194
,
229

Abu Abbas Islamic Group,
212

Abu Ghraib,
62
,
73
,
77

Ackerman, Gary,
231
–32

Adams, Henry,
55

Advisory Committee on Refugees,
269

Afghanistan,
75
,
182

Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009,
303

solatia (condolence payments),
85

US-affiliated workers in,
303
,
305
–6

al-‘Alam television,
212

alassa
s (Iraqi militiamen),
4
–5,
173
,
247

Albright, Madeleine,
27

Algerian Harkis,
268

Al-Qaeda,
234
,
244
,
259
,
272
,
288

American Amnesia
(blog),
153

American International Group (AIG),
150
–51,
226

Amina (US-affiliated Iraqi),
106
–7,
160
,
184

claims asylum in the US,
201
–2

employed by the List Project,
205
,
224
,
225

threats against,
202

USAID criticizes for defecting,
202
–3

Amman, Jordan,
94
,
95
,
149
–50,
171
,
226
,
228
,
230
,
259
,
280
,
293

Amrika al-yawm
(
America Today
),
136

Anbar Province,
79
,
81
,
87
,
109

the
Sahwa
or “Awakening” in,
234

USAID in,
93

Ansar al-Sunnah Army,
288
–90

Arabic:

arrests of Iraqis and naming conventions,
87

dictionary,
87

Johnson's fluency,
18
–19,
21
,
156
,
169
,
298

naming conventions,
87

transliteration of,
87
–88

Arango, Tim,
278

Army of the Men of the Naqshbandiya Order,
294

Asiacell,
213

Asia Times
,
85

Al-Askari Shrine,
107
–8,
162
,
178

Assassins' Gate, The: America in Iraq
(Packer),
187

Australia,
252

Ba'ath Party,
23
,
24
,
52

militants,
294

Saddam Hussein's executions (1979),
23

Baghdad.
See also
Green Zone

Abu Dasheer neighborhood,
142

Adhamiya neighborhood,
23

Assassins' Gate,
3
,
161

checkpoints,
32
,
107
,
161
,
201

Dora neighborhood,
135
,
136
,
137
,
142

Karkh Cemetery,
134

lawlessness in,
29
,
30
,
31
,
137
,
138
,
170

Mansour district,
28

media leaves,
247

medical care in,
30
–31

neighborhoods,
64

Al-Rasheed Hotel,
20
,
257
,
259

Red Zone,
3

Republican Palace,
45

restaurants,
135

sectarian violence in,
108
,
109

Sina'a Street,
27
,
30
,
32

Suleikh neighborhood,
133

Al-Technologia University,
27

Tunis quarter,
133
,
135

US bombing of (March 2003),
28
–29,
136

Yaghdan's home in (Street Number 2),
4
,
28

Yaghdan's shop in,
27
,
29

BaghdadDonut.xls file,
56

Baghdad International Airport,
42

Basrah, Iraq,
26
,
45
,
46
,
57
,
306

British-affiliated Iraqis assassinated in,
252
,
302

Hassaniyah neighborhood,
207

Jaza'ir neighborhood,
207

Rasheed Hotel in,
211

US and Western companies compound,
213

Wael abducted in,
211
–12

Basrah Engineering College,
209
–10,
212

BATS (Biometrics Automated Toolset System),
87

Bechtel Corporation,
24
,
29
–30,
125
,
244

electrical generation project,
58

Beck, Glenn,
256

Betrayed
(Packer),
250
,
251

“Betrayed: The Iraqis Who Trusted America the Most” (Packer),
190
,
192

Blackstone's formulation,
298
,
299

Blackwater,
38
,
298

Fallujah burning of mercenaries,
74
,
298

Blagojevich, Rod,
17

Blair, Tony,
252

Blinderman, Eric,
204

Blumenauer, Earl,
237
–38

Boehner, John,
155

Bolton, John,
178
,
235
,
278

Boxer, Barbara,
177
–78

Breitman, Richard,
270

Bremer, Paul,
57
,
121
,
148
,
227

speech in Chicago,
122
–23

Brighton, Massachusetts,
166
,
171
,
174
,
182
,
197

Brown, Michael,
178

Brownback, Sam,
238

Brzezinski, Zbigniew,
249

Bush, George H. W.,
25
,
26

Bush, George W.,
27
,
250

appointees,
177
,
178
,
182
,
185

“axis of evil” and,
136
,
236

denial of civil war in Iraq,
109

Gregory interview with,
236

Iraqi refugees and,
168
,
229
,
235
,
237
,
250
,
251
,
300

Iraq Refugee and Internally Displaced Persons Task Force created,
185
–86,
230

NSC and treatment of refugee organizations,
253
–54

Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act blocked,
244

status-of-forces agreement (SOFA),
246

“the surge” and,
234
,
235
,
246

ternary options for Iraq War,
234
–35

Woodward interview,
243

Camp Taji (US military base north of Baghdad) and Pod 23,
214
–16,
220

Cardin, Ben,
272
,
273
,
275

Casey, Gen. George,
67
–68

CBS Evening News
,
109

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),
20
,
183
,
265
,
268

Voice of Free Iraq radio and,
25

Chambesy, Switzerland,
300

Cheney, Dick,
156

Chertoff, Michael,
229

Chiarelli, Gen. Peter,
85

Chicago Council on Global Affairs (formerly Chicago Council on Foreign Relations),
122
–23

Choi, Dana,
224
–25

Clinton, Bill,
252
,
271

Clinton, Hillary,
238

CNN,
56
,
129

clandestine viewing by Iraqis,
136

Coalition Provisional Authority,
57
,
121
,
171
–72.
See also
Bremer, Paul

Colbert, Stephen,
121

College of DuPage,
18

Combat Support Hospital, Baghdad,
75
–76,
146

Couric, Katie,
109

Creative Associates International,
32
–33

CTOs (cognizant technical officers),
78

Dallegher, Maj. Gen. John,
253

Damascus, Syria,
189