BOOK
REVIEW On the ground in
Iraq In the Belly of the
Green Bird by Nir Rosen
Reviewed by Michael Schwartz
Nir
Rosen is one of a handful of extraordinary
investigative reporters who offer English-literate
readers the on-the-ground reality of the war in
Iraq. And the combination of virtues he brings to
his work - including his fluent, Iraqi-accented
Arabic, his willingness to spend long periods in
life-threatening situations, and his graceful and
luminous writing style - make him unique even
among this handful.
So this book, which
provides an even broader canvas than his expansive
New Yorker article and his six-part Asia Times
Online dispatch on Fallujah (Inside the Iraqi
resistance), is a welcome
addition to the still-meager
library of first-hand accounts of what Iraq looks
like since the US invasion.
Rosen's
approach to journalism is reminiscent of the
"atmospheric" style of movie director Robert
Altman: the larger reality emerges from a collage
of microscopic events - a brief conversation
between US troops and Iraqi civilians, a
one-minute firefight where no one is injured, or a short
outburst by a local Iraqi about life after the
fall of Saddam Hussein. From these tiny building
blocks emerge a portrait of the (changing )
features of Iraqi society under the pressure of -
and in reaction to - the US occupation.
Among the noteworthy things we learn from
his intense experience are some insights that are
old (but enriched by the details he fills in),
some that are new (and often far from what we have
been led to believe by the mainstream media), some
that are borrowed from other journalists (but
given new life by Rosen's unique access to the
everyday reality) and, most of all, many that are
blue-sad portraits of the evisceration of the
vibrant and varied society that once enriched Iraq
and the world.
The text is so rich with
these insights that a list is impossible, so I
will offer only two examples. His chapter on the
January 2005 elections makes a familiar point in
an important new way: the vast majority of Sunnis
were not kept away by the threats of violence
issued from jihadists in the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
camp. Instead, they boycotted the elections as
part of an organic protest organized largely
through the mosques in Sunni communities. This
point is not so much argued in a formal sense; it
rises out of pointed vignettes such as this one:
Driving through deserted Arab slums,
I could find no evidence of the election. No
posters, no banners, no prominent voting
locations bustling with people. When I finally
found several men in the street, they could not
point me in the direction of a voting location;
they did not know where any would be found. (p
224)
Rosen's careful distinction
between the jihadist terrorists associated with
Zarqawi and the nationalist resistance that
focuses its attention on expelling the Americans
is far less familiar, at least to those of us who
get our information from the US media. Here again,
the story is in the details: determination to
attack the Shi'ites in Iraq (despite the
hesitations of Osama bin Laden), the opposition of
Sunni resistance leaders to this strategy, the
focus of the guerrillas on "robbing trucks
delivering supplies to the Americans" and demands
by local Sunnis in Fallujah for Zarqawi fighters
to leave their neighborhood "so the Americans
would not destroy it". And from this we get a
beautiful sense of the ongoing tensions within
Sunni Iraq about how to fight the occupation.
Rosen's approach, which combines with his
graceful prose to make most points vividly and
persuasively, limits him in some of his more
ambitious goals. One overarching theme of the book
is the gathering momentum Rosen feels will carry
Iraqi society into civil war. While the text is
full of vivid examples of sectarian anger,
violence and mayhem, it is also full of images
(such as those I have just mentioned), which
suggest other currents and tendencies. Rosen's
atmospheric style does not permit a sifting of
these dynamics into a coherent argument for his
viewpoint, and we are left with "the blues" about
the future, but not a sharp sense of which
currents will prevail.
But this is a small
price to pay for the virtues of Rosen's method,
one that is certainly suited to most of his goals,
including his most pervasive and convincing theme
that "two and a half years after the invasion ...
the Americans were detested to different degrees
by nearly everyone". (p 232) This verity is
presented most persuasively through a dense
description of the early fighting in Anbar
province (destined to become the epicenter of the
war), where we witness for ourselves that the
hatred against the Americans there was hard-earned
through a process of callous brutality.
At
one point Rosen triangulates the contrasting
realities experienced by American commanders, by
enlisted personnel in the occupation, and by the
residents of Anbar cities and towns. We read about
Lieutenant-Colonel Gregg Reilly, the man in
charge, saying: "When we go search houses, we're
very polite ... We knock on their door ... They
ask us in. They wouldn't appreciate us if we
treated them like criminals." (p 76)
But
then we read about his subordinate, a Captain
Alfieri, saying, "I wonder how I would feel if
someone was breaking down my door ..." (p 78) And,
even closer to the ground, a sergeant "who quipped
that after such treatment the ones who were not
guilty 'will be guilty next time'." (p 82) And
finally a local resident commenting: "Until now we
have not seen anything good, only killing,
searches and curfews ... It has never been so bad
... There is a reaction for every action ... If
you are choking me, I will also choke you." (p84)
These sorts of descriptions cannot be
found anywhere in the English language and maybe
not anywhere at all. They are one of the few
treasures that have emerged from this war, offered
to us by a reporter of consummate skill and
courage.
In the Belly of the Green
Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq by
Nir Rosen. New York: Free Press, 2006. ISBN:
0743277031. Price US$26, 288 pages.
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing
.)
injured, or a short
outburst by a local Iraqi about life after the
fall of Saddam Hussein. From these tiny building
blocks emerge a portrait of the (changing )
features of Iraqi society under the pressure of -
and in reaction to - the US occupation.
