"Against All Odds": Raising Iraqi Voices of Grassroots Resis

"Against All Odds": Raising Iraqi Voices of Grassroots Resis

Postby Oscar » Mon Jul 06, 2015 10:50 am

"Against All Odds": Raising Iraqi Voices of Grassroots Resistance

[ http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/3 ... resistance ]

Sunday, 05 July 2015 00:00 By Michael Reagan, Truthout | Book Review

Against All Odds: Voices of Popular Struggle in Iraq, Ali Issa, Tadween Publishing and War Resisters League
[ http://tadweenpublishing.com/products/p ... le-in-iraq ]

The closest anyone in the Bush administration has come to being held accountable for the crime of the invasion of Iraq came in December 2008, when Iraqi journalist and activist Muntazar al-Zaidi threw his two shoes at President Bush during a press conference in Baghdad. Bush narrowly dodged the shoes, smirking as he popped up from behind the podium.

Al-Zaidi would go on to serve several years in prison for his crime. His message, a "final kiss" from the "widows and orphans" of Iraq, was carried on by the people of Iraq. Three years later, as Iraq experienced its own "Arab Spring," people by the thousands threw their shoes at US military helicopters and vehicles, then on their way out, forced by the actions of the Iraqi people themselves. Al-Zaidi's shoes helped dislodge the mask of imperial impunity.

It should be no surprise that it was an Iraqi that brought this limited form of retributive justice to Bush for what has become the supreme crime of the 21st century, a crime for which we continue to feel the consequences - some more than others. Indeed, it is Iraqis themselves who have made much of the recent history possible, a point routinely ignored in the West.

Ali Issa's new book Against All Odds: Voices of Popular Struggle in Iraq, published jointly by Tadween Publishing and War Resisters League, seeks to correct Western ignorance about resistance movements in Iraq. The major events of the last decade - from the Iraqi oil law that was never passed, to the Status of Forces Agreement at the end of Bush's term, to the eventual "withdrawal" under President Obama, to the current resistance to ISIS and building of Iraqi secular society - were made possible through the work of regular Iraqis. Issa's book brings these stories to life. Through interviews with key Iraqi organizers and his own writings as events unfolded during 2011, Issa's work is a needed corrective to the absence of Iraqi voices in Western media.

MORE:

[ http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/3 ... resistance ]
Oscar
Site Admin
 
Posts: 9079
Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm

Return to Books/Films, etc.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests

cron