The Wall Street Journal brave correspondent in the Middle East, Farnaz Fassihi, wrote a book too late. The history of the middle class, disenchanted, workers in Iraq, was waiting to be told. Bravo to the courage of Ms. Fassihi writing a book about what happens now that the war is supposedly over. These brave people have now become accustomed to the defeat of Saddam Hussein, and the ramifications of what it means to them as a people and a country. The photographs and articles have been written since 2003, when America came into this controversial war. Battles, heroes, villains, soldiers, all are documented. However, it took Ms. Fassihi to spend time with the story should be told. This group of people who, for all practical purposes are the future of Iraq.
This substantial account tells how ordinary people of taxi drivers for students, artists and business people to teachers and parents have gone to the great hope of simply trying to survive to see what a normal life could be and after the war. Living among the citizens, and after the war, Fassihi interviewed many of these people are basically left to see where their lives to lead. In it we see the two opposing religious groups as they seek their place in this new world, where they can exist in harmony if possible.
With his parents in Iran, Fassihi includes more than others and therefore be able to talk with leaders who are fighting, but the important thing is just trying to live and spend each day. He is able to give readers a story of how the conflict, people every day some of the real heroes of this war. Contrasting the lives of these people live with what it would be for Americans in every major city in our country, is an almost uncomfortable with the way these people are treated and what they have experienced and continue to face. Ms. Fassihi history is linked to the controversy as many wishes this kind of story that could be simply swept under the carpet. This is a story to read and digest, and also understand how important it is that people know what really happened anywhere in Iraq for the people who matter most to those who will build and maintain long after the troops, political journalists, and the world’s attention to another place, another war!