Customer Reviews

Because Each Life Is Precious: Why an Iraqi Man Came to Risk Everything for Private Jessica Lynch

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This is a great book by a man who risked everything, life, family, etc., to save someone he did not even know. After growing up in Baathist Iraq, which was just as vicious as Stalin's Russia or Hitler's Germany, Mohammed was moved to do something after seeing Jessica Lynch being viciously slapped by her interrogator in her hospital room. Risking his life, and that of his family, Mohammed went through a war zone to contact U.S. forces and share his information with them. The Marines sent him back to gather the information they needed and to get his family to a place of safety with the Marines. He was able to gather his information, and get into her room and tell her not to worry, and prevent the doctors from amputating Jessica's left leg (an operation which would have killed her, with the doctors' attitude being that if she dies, she dies). Running from Fedayeen who noticed him and wanting to collect a price on his head, Mohammed escaped after a Marine Cobra gunship killed his pursuers, but shrapnel from a rocket blinded him in one eye. After drawing maps and sharing his information, he listened on the radio as SEALs stormed the hospital and brought Jessica out of a nightmarish captivity. Reunited with his family, he was offered asylum in America, and this brave man has set out building a new life in a new country. Where Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein show the worst of Islam, Mohammed and his wife showed what the vast majority of Muslims are: decent people who are able and willing to help others in need. A great book by someone who knows what happened to Jessica Lynch, because he was there.

God Bless this man. Such love and kindness for a complete stranger in need illustrates this man's faith in humanity. It is images and stories like these that define how the human spirit is inherently good. The fact that this wonderful person would risk his life and the lives of his loved ones to help a soldier from the other side, after witnessing her being beaten, is a testament to his compassion. Just his willingness to protect his family, go against the will of his brutal government, traverse a dangerous war zone, walk into an opposition camp to volunteer this information, retrieve information on the hospital, avoid suspicion and escape capture from his own people, and then delivering this information to the U.S. forces, is beyond commendable. To give up what success he possessed by Iraqi standards and completely turn his family's life upside down for an opposition stranger is a true act of heroism. I hope his asylum in the United States is as wonderful and fruitful for him and his family as he has dreamed. God Bless him!

This man is truly a hero; he risked his life, his prosperity (he was a wealthy man in Iraq), and his family's safety to save the life of a young American soldier. This book is extremely interesting and gives an insider's perspective of the war from an Iraqi man's point of view. He tells us what it was like to grow up in Iraq living under a terror regime. I am gracious to know that a man with this amount of courage and respect for life walks amoung us; I hope he prospers with this book and his new life in America.

George Bush should buy up copies of this book by the dozens and and distribute them as he goes around the country raising money for his re-election campaign. Mohammed al-Rehaief in 212 pages does more to make the case that the U. S. should have invaded Iraq than all the rhetoric that continues to pour out of Washington. Simply put, Mr. al-Rehaief is a hero if risking your life and the lives of your family to save a total stranger defines a hero.

In addition to giving us the details of Mr. al-Rehaief's part in saving Jessica Lynch, a story that has all in's and out's of any first-rate suspense novel, roughly a third of the book is about the author's life before Jessica Lynch--his childhood, adolescence, marriage, his hatred of the Saddam Hussein dictatorship. "In adolescence I grew more subversive. I'd make fun of Saddam's crooked mouth, mimicking him before my friends. Or we'd find an empty classroom at recess, load spitballs onto rubber bands, and fire away at the president's picture." Always known as a "long tongue," the author was always getting both himself and his family in trouble. A thirty-three-year-old Shiite from Nasiriya, Mr. al-Rehaief is an expert in kung fu, a skill that saved his life on more than one occasion. Though trained a a lawyer he no longer practiced as he says in a country where there is no law. Although from an affluent family, the author learned early on from his beloved father that "there is no shame in being poor" and "each life is precious." Mr. al-Rehaief is a very fluent storyteller with a good sense of humor. While a Muslim, he is not a fanatical fundamentalist and admits that he has never been able to fast an entire month for Ramadan. In a word, he's someone you'd want to invite to a dinner party.

Mr. al-Rehaief, now in the United States with his wife and his daughter, whose hospitalization in Iraq is just one of the many horric experiences he describes, says that when he made the decision to live in the U. S., he felt as if he were "going home." And finally in this decent and good man's own words: "I read everything I can about Jessica's progress. When the hospital released her to her home in West Virginia, I felt like we had won all over again. More than anything, I wish her a full and happy life. . . Finally, I regret nothing. I would risk it all again to help her, without thinking twice."

Welcome home, Mr. al-Hehaief.

I know Mohammed personally. He extends his thanks to you and to other reviewers who send their blessings to him and his family. When I read the book, I would never have believed all of this actually happened if I had not heard his first hand account even before the book was published. It is truly an amazing story about an amazing man who risked and LOST everything except his life and the lives of his immediate family members. There is a lot for the family to get adjusted to in the US, but they are making progress, and generally doing well. Please continue to keep them in your prayers, and be sure to share the book with friends and family.

Often times it happens that heroes are born when an ordinary person performs an extraordinary act of bravery as a gut reaction, without even thinking about it. Such was NOT the case with Mohammed al-Rehaief. This brave man had dozens of opportunities to think about the enormity of the task in front of him and the extreme dangers he faced. Yet he never wavered. With fedayeen and Baathists in pursuit, neighborhood informants watching him, and American bombs dropping all around him, Mohammed diligently collected the information needed to save a soldier's life and brought it across enemy lines - not once but three times! Knowing that the bombs were coming and having seen and experienced first-hand the hideous atrocities perpetrated by Saddam's regime against those who dare defy it, he could justifiably have turned back at any point and told himself that he had done enough, that he had given it his best. But his deeply ingrained compassion and conviction stayed him the course.

The book tells the whole amazing story, along with a vivid description of life (and death) in Saddam's Iraq. For such a heavy subject matter, the writing style is easy and casual and even manages a few glimpses of humor.

Mohammed claims that as a boy he idolized John Wayne as "a hero with a big heart", but the real hero with the big heart is Mohammed al-Rehaief. Welcome to America, Mohammed. May you and your family find peace, freedom and prosperity here. And may your country find the same.

A great story, well-told, that will uplift spirits of people from age 10 to 100. This is the story of a man who risked all he knew and all he had to pursue fixing a wrong. A modern Good Samaritan or Don Quixote. All that he ever learned and knew to be right empowered him on a journey into the unknown where his life and the lives of his extended family were uprooted, changed forever, and put at risk. This is a story of making hope out of despair. It is a story of urgently pursuing right knowing that it will not wait for convenience. It is a story of building trust in the middle of doubt. It is the story that boldly answers the "Why Me?" question. It is a story that will bring tears and smiles all at once. Anyone who reads this and harbors cynical thoughts has disconnected from his or her own heart.

Read it. Ask your children to read it. Talk to your neighbors about it. If there were more people with more actions making more of these stories, terror, tyranny, and brutality would have no place to hide. The world would be a better place. Good news would fill our papers and our hearts.

Mohammed Odeh al-Rahaief has written a riveting story about his life in Iraq and his dangerous adventures in struggling to help save Jessica's life. It was eye opening to see what life in Iraq was like, and I love the way the book was written in a very interesting manner. I couldn't put the book down and I would recommend it to everyone. It was so inspirational to read about someone who acted so selflessly by putting his own life and that of his family's on the line to help another human being who was not even from his country. He lost the vision in one eye during the perilous adventure to try to help Jessica. I hope his life will be richly blessed and those who come in contact with him and his family will be caring, generous, and supportive. I am proud to have Mohammed and his family in America.

I read this book in a couple of sittings because it was surprisingly good. I liked finding out about life in Iraq through this good man's life. I've been surprised that Jessica has not at least met this man to discuss his role in her rescue. I heard her say she doesn't "remember him" but she should meet with him to clear up the mystery. This book propelled me to purchase a second book about another Iraqi, Mayada, Daughter of Iraq, which I am reading now and it is excellent, thus far. Since American and Americans are now so linked to Iraq and Iraqis, I want to find out everything I can about the country and the people. This book, along with Mayada, Daughter of Iraq, gives Americans a completely different view of the country and the people, straight from the "horse's mouth." I no longer trust my own media to hear the truth, so it is nice to have two books out about Iraqis.

Wonderful book and it gives you hope that everyone in the world is not evil. That there are still those who care about others. I have heard several in the medical profession discuss the fact that Jessica does not remember some of the details - this is not unusual, they say. The brain is able to block out events that are extremely painful to remember. How Megan can criticize this "inaccuracy" only leads me to believe that she has her head under a rock. Thank you, Mohammed, for your selflessness when you had everything to lose. I commend you and may you have a happy life in the USA.