Chehab, Zaki. Inside the Resistance: The Iraqi Insurgency and the Future of the Middle East. New York: Nation Books, 2005.
Filkins, Dexter. The Forever War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.
Finkel, David. The Good Soldiers. New York: Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009.
Gordon, Michael R., and Bernard E. Trainor. Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq. New York: Pantheon Books, 2006.
Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience. Washington, DC: Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, 2009.
Hashim, Ahmed S. Insurgency and Counter-insurgency in Iraq. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.
Mayer, Jane. The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals. New York: Doubleday, 2008.
Miller, T. Christian. Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006.
Packer, George. The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
Perry, Walter L., et al. Withdrawing from Iraq: Alternative Schedules, Associated Risks, and Mitigating Strategies. Santa Monica, CA: RAND/National Defense Research Institute, 2009.
Ricks, Thomas E. The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006–2008. New York: Penguin, 2009.
Rosen, Nir. In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq. New York: Free Press, 2006.
Shadid, Anthony. Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadow of America’s War. New York: Henry Holt, 2005.
Walzer, Michael, and Nicolaus Mills, eds. Getting Out: Historical Perspectives on Leaving Iraq. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.
West, Bing. No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle For Fallujah. New York: Bantam Books, 2005.
Iraqi Refugees
Amos, Deborah. Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East. New York: PublicAffairs, 2010.
US Department of State and the Broadcasting Board of Governors, Office of Inspector General, Middle East Regional Office. “Status of U.S. Refugee Resettlement Processing for Iraqi Nationals.” MERO-IQO-08-02, May 2008.
US Government Accountability Office. “Iraqi Refugees and Special Immigrant Visa Holders Face Challenges Resettling in the United States and Obtaining U.S. Government Employment.” GAO-10-274, March 9, 2010.
Vietnam
Coleman, Bradley Lynn. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume X: Vietnam, January 1973–July 1975. DIANE Publishing, 2012.
Halberstam, David. The Best and the Brightest. New York: Modern Library, 2001.
Herr, Michael. Dispatches. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.
Logevall, Fredrik. Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam. New York: Random House, 2012.
Memoranda of Conversations, 1973–1977. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum, Ann Arbor, MI. http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/guides/findingaid/Memoranda_of_Conversations.asp#Ford.
Ninh, Bào. The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam. New York: Pantheon Books, 1995.
Sheehan, Neil. A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. New York: Modern Library, 2009.
Snepp, Frank. Decent Interval: An Insider’s Account of Saigon’s Indecent End. New York: Random House, 1977.
World War II and Jewish Refugee Policy
Breitman, Richard, Barbara McDonald Stewart, and Severin Hochberg, eds. Advocate for the Doomed: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1932–1935. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007.
———. Refugees and Rescue: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1935–1945. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2009.
Paldiel, Mordecai. Diplomat Heroes of the Holocaust. Jersey City, NJ: Ktav Publishers, 2007.
Other Wars
Crapanzano, Vincent. The Harkis: The Wound That Never Heals. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Horne, Alistair. A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954–1962. New York: Viking Press, 1978.
Jasanoff, Maya. Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.
To Help the List Project
To support and learn more about the List Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, please visit www.thelistproject.org. A portion of the proceeds from book sales will benefit the List Project.
Readers are also encouraged to join Netroots on thelistproject.org, where thousands of Americans have formed chapters in order to help newly resettled Iraqis transition to their new lives.
Contributions can be made online or mailed to:
The List Project
P.O. Box 66533
Washington, D.C. 20035
On Twitter: @TLPHQ
On Facebook: facebook.com/thelistproject
READING GROUP GUIDE
* * *
TO BE A FRIEND IS FATAL
Kirk W. Johnson
Discussion Questions
1.In To Be a Friend Is Fatal, Kirk W. Johnson recounts the stories of numerous Iraqis who stepped forward to assist the United States during the course of the Iraq War. Did any particular story stand out to you?
2.In chapter 2, we are introduced to Yaghdan, on the eve of the war. Were you surprised by any aspects of Iraq’s pre-2003 history? How do you think Yaghdan’s life experiences affected his decision to help the Americans?
3.Kirk describes how his impressions of life in the Green Zone changed his perspective on the US government’s efforts in Iraq. What did he find there, and what did it compel him to do?
4.In “USGspeak,” Kirk describes the orientation given to newly arrived American USAID staffers. What lessons can we draw from the way in which the agency’s Iraqi employees were discussed?
5.There wasn’t always a stigma in Iraq surrounding the Iraqis who worked for the Americans. What caused the Iraqi public’s opinions to harden against those who assisted the US?
6.What does the story of MOAG, the Mother of All Generators, reveal about how the Americans tried to rebuild Iraq?
7.What stands out the most from Kirk’s description of Fallujah?
8.After Kirk’s accident in the Dominican Republic he faces months of recovery, but he harbors a wish to return to Fallujah as quickly as possible. Why do you think he wanted to go back?
9.In “The Insurgent of West Chicago,” Kirk struggles to make sense of what America has done in Iraq. Imagine another country invaded the United States and occupied your hometown, all while informing you that they were there to help you. How do you think you would react?
10.Kirk describes his struggle with posttraumatic stress and depression following the accident. Do you know anyone who has experienced PTSD? Do you think his condition influenced his reaction to the desperate emails he received from Iraqi colleagues?
11.What do you remember most about Zina from her story in “Pod 23”? Why do you think she was motivated to work for the Americans? Why couldn’t she and her family just stay inside Iraq or in a neighboring country?
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
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
SimonandSchuster.com
We hope you enjoyed reading this Scribner eBook.
* * *
Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Scribner and Simon & Schuster.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP
or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com
Index
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
alassas (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 Pr
ovisional 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
US Embassy in, 226
Defense Base Act, 150
Denmark, 252
Dershowitz, Alan, 299
Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, 87
DeVry University, Keller School of Management, 306
Dewey, Arthur, 177
Dina (wife of Hayder), 135, 136, 137, 149, 230
in Amman, Jordan, 149, 226, 227
child born, 141
fears for Hayder, 143, 147
life in America, 306–8
dissociative fugue state, 96–97, 118–19, 174, 175
Dobriansky, Paula, 229, 230
Dominican Republic, 93, 95–96
Johnson’s fugue state and injuries in, 95–102, 242
Johnson’s ring lost/found in, 96
DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), 118
Dubai, UAE, 162
Dumford, Dick, 58
Durbin, Dick, 155
Dwight, Ronald, 148, 227
Egypt:
Halliburton-KBR in, 221
Iraqi refugees in, 220–21, 230
Islamist “pulp” writings, 20
Johnson on Fulbright scholarship in, 20
mukhabarat (secret police), 189
Zaid tortured in, 189
Eighty-Second Airborne, 144–45, 149, 228, 281
Eikenberry, Karl, 303
electricity and Iraq, 94
American failure to restore power, 32, 141
American invasion and loss of, 29
Bechtel assessments of, 125
belief that Americans would restore, 30
entrepreneurs and fatalities, 58
MOAG and, 58–61
as overriding need, 57, 139
Saddam Hussein’s policy, 57
unrest and lack of, 57–61
To Be a Friend Is Fatal Page 33