Gulf War

• Baghdad native and former architect Ghaith Abdul-Ahad traces his start as a journalist to the day Saddam Hussein’s statue was toppled in central Baghdad, on April 9 2003 – two weeks after US troops invaded the city.
• Framed as a watershed moment, Western media coverage at the time “heavily implied” the statue was taken down by “a large crowd of cheering Iraqis”.
• But expressions of gratitude for the American goal of “restoring democracy” were not unanimous.
• ‘Show the world American democracy.’

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Beyond ‘shock and awe’

• In the two decades since the brutal invasion, its architects have held onto near-total impunity.
• And in 2019, the UK government even sought to grant amnesty to troops who committed war crimes during their deployment.
• Countless memoirs from US and UK veterans published over the past two decades betray persisting delusions of heroism.

Sweeping and dynamic

• A Stranger in Your Own City is sweeping in scope.
• It doesn’t fit neatly into any one genre, but reads at once like a travelogue, geo-biography, memoir and political history.
• But this dynamic collection rarely meanders, nor does it lose the reader in its frequent shifts in focus.
• Instead, its structure foregrounds what the book does best: unsettling the enduring myths about the origins of Iraq’s never-ending crisis.

Sectarian tensions heightened by occupation

• Here, Abdul-Ahad challenges the widely held view that sectarian tensions were an entrenched and longstanding source of conflict in Iraq before 2003.
• We learn instead that sectarianism was, in fact, catalysed by the US occupation – namely in the formation of the post-Saddam government.
• Ultimately, these networks functioned as “personal fiefdoms” that distributed and privatised resources and services following sectarian quotas.
• And, as Abdul-Ahad argues, the rearranging of Iraqi society across sectarian lines – both socially and geographically – fuelled the civil wars to come.

An extension of America’s war

• Abdul-Ahad challenges the binary view of Iraqi societal tensions as split neatly between Sunni and Shia Muslims following the 2006 civil war.
• He examines a “wide range of localised schisms and fault lines, feuds based on class or geography”.
• Despite this ever-changing political climate, Abdul-Ahad contends, “as for the Iraqis, friend and foe alike, this was still an extension of America’s war, even if it was now only Iraqis who were butchering Iraqis”.
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Disaster capitalism in Iraq

• Abdul-Ahad illustrates how the Gulf War and 13 years of crippling sanctions “brought [Iraq] to its knees”.
• Disaster capitalists exploit and even manufacture political and economic crises so they can introduce vastly transformative neoliberal policies amid the chaos.
• In this context, the invasion of Iraq was anything but a failure in the eyes of its architects.
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A productive tension

• As I write this review, I’m reminded the representational responsibilities of a book like this aren’t set in stone.
• Abdul-Ahad very deliberately resists buying into a reductive narrative about what caused the war – and rightly so.
• A productive tension emerges between Abdul-Ahad’s personal understanding of Iraqi society and politics and those of his interviewees, complicating the Western media’s monolithic rendering of Iraqis.
• But this pressure risks depoliticising their experiences – and relegating their historical and political contexts to the narrative margins.

‘Deeply human’, but still political

• But Abdul-Ahad mostly avoids this trap, without sacrificing either personal resonance or political subjectivity.
• While the protests failed to inspire substantial political change, the reverberations of a “larger more common identity” were felt.
• In the wake of the Tishreen Movement, Abdul-Ahad renders an image of ambivalent, angry steadfastness and hope.

• Windstream, a privately held communications and software company, is proud to help sponsor the 2023 National Veterans Wheelchair Games, which take place July 4-9 in Portland, Oregon.
• The Wheelchair Games are open to all U.S. veterans with spinal cord injuries, amputations, multiple sclerosis, or other central neurological conditions who require a wheelchair for athletic competition.
• “It’s truly inspiring to watch these athletes in action at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games,” Reed said.
• “Their service and resilience deserve our highest respect.”
  The Department of Veterans Affairs launched the Wheelchair Games in 1981 with 7 events and 77 athletes.

• MECCA, Saudi Arabia, June 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Saudi Arabia has successfully managed to achieve an excellent status in the framework of realizing self-sufficiency for several necessary food products before taking up the task of securing food for millions of visiting pilgrims coming from different countries of the world.
• According to the head of catering in Mecca, products from 1,294 food factories in Saudi Arabia will secure more than 120 million meals for at least 2 million pilgrims in six days under the supervision of the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah.
• Saudi Arabia's strategy to achieve food security involves 11 programs, including the Saudi Agricultural Investment Abroad Program, with the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC) completing a 4.65-billion-riyal acquisition of 35.43 percent of the Singaporean Olam Agri company in December 2022, in addition to the acquisition of two meat processing factories in Australia.
• Furthermore, water security also occupies a place on the strategic agenda of the Kingdom, who currently engages in massive seawater desalination projects and the operation and management of 563 dams, while it plans to build 1,000 new dams to enhance the utilization of rainwater.

• MECCA, Saudi Arabia, June 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Saudi Arabia has successfully managed to achieve an excellent status in the framework of realizing self-sufficiency for several necessary food products before taking up the task of securing food for millions of visiting pilgrims coming from different countries of the world.
• According to the head of catering in Mecca, products from 1,294 food factories in Saudi Arabia will secure more than 120 million meals for at least 2 million pilgrims in six days under the supervision of the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah.
• Saudi Arabia's strategy to achieve food security involves 11 programs, including the Saudi Agricultural Investment Abroad Program, with the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC) completing a 4.65-billion-riyal acquisition of 35.43 percent of the Singaporean Olam Agri company in December 2022, in addition to the acquisition of two meat processing factories in Australia.
• Furthermore, water security also occupies a place on the strategic agenda of the Kingdom, who currently engages in massive seawater desalination projects and the operation and management of 563 dams, while it plans to build 1,000 new dams to enhance the utilization of rainwater.