Customer Reviews

The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq

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The thing I appreciate most about Ajami's book is that it's based on research he gathered during six trips to Iraq. He's interviewed, listened to, and spoken with people from every conceivable position of influence. As a result, he's writing from and commenting on a collection of feelings, hopes, and fears prevailing in Iraq.

Ajami has a deep love for the Middle Eastern culture, which combined with scholarly insight produces a book of beautiful and revealing sketches of the ongoing struggle for Iraq and of the American encounter with the Arab culture. If that sounds like a contradiction, it almost is.

While Ajami is careful to avoid generalizations he ends up painting a portrait using both black and white - hope and despair. In fact, he believes both are living together side-by-side in Iraq. It is through this haze that he peers in order to bring some clarity and insight regarding the daily life of various Arab perspectives on the current state of Iraq. One way he does that is by focusing on how Iraq's particular history led to its present circumstance.

In addition to the historical emphasis of the book I wish Ajami had asked questions of Islam itself and how the foundational tenants of the religion contribute to the feelings, tensions, and state of the region. Of course that might require a level of fearlessness that even Ajami would prefer to avoid.

For many Americans - myself included - the war in Iraq was not entirely about oil, weapons of mass destruction, nor links between al-Qaeda and the regime of Saddam Hussein. Although all of these reasons were given for going to war, it was ultimately about something else. The nineteen young Arabs that attacked America on 9/11 were products of Arab history and culture. They were products of the "anger" of the Arab world were terrorism had taken root. Of all the Arab lands, the most tortured and merciless was Iraq. The Baath regime in Baghdad had poisoned the atmosphere in the Middle East for many years. The American overthrow of the regime was meant to give Iraqis and other peoples of the region the possiblity of liberating themselves and building a decent future, and in the process eliminating the root causes of terrorism.

To my knowledge no one has articulated this view better than Fouad Ajami. I have been a fan of his for many years, finding his assessments of the Middle East to be very accurate. He was born of a Shiite family in Lebanon and he is currently professor of Middle Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins. His new book is based on six trips he made to Iraq since the American invasion. He has been granted access to many government officials in Iraq as well as Washington.

The overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the ruling Sunni minority in Baghdad caused an upheaval in the Arab world that at first was met with silence. The Sunni Arab elites were reticent about the rise of the Shiite majority and were secretly hoping that the Sunnis would remain in power. They rarely criticized the Jordanian born Sunni al-Zarqawi during his three year reign of terror when he brought death and destruction to Iraqi civilians. Officially it was the fight against American occupation, unofficially it was to stop the rise of the Iraqi Shiites. It was not until al-Zarqawi's brigades bombed three hotels in Jordan that he lost the support of the Jordanians.

Ajami is well aware of the difficulty and the heavy burden of the task America has undertaken, the outcome of which looks more dismal by the day. He correctly notes that the mess in Iraq was not entirely of America's making. The Iraqis have been given a chance to build a new government and a new future. He sees Sunni intransigence and sectarian bias as the main source of failure thus far. It remains to be seen whether a political solution can be reached, since a military solution is no longer possible short of civil war.

One criticism I would have of this book is that Ajami does not fully recognize the Shia inclination toward Iranian-style theocracy. One of the most powerful and malignant forces waiting in the wings is Moktada al-Sadr and the Mahdi army. Even if they are independent of the Iranians, they still have the potential of creating a society that will be worse than the one that was there before.

As the future of Iraq hangs in the balance, Ajami makes a powerful and eloquent plea for supporting the current fragile, but democratically elected government that is trying desperately to hold the country together.

In a recent review for a best-selling book "America Alone," one of Amazon's top 30 reviewers had just one "major complaint."

"(Author) Mark Steyn does a great job describing where we're at NOW, and where we might be in thirty years, but offers almost nothing about what could happen in the middle. A lot of events will occur between now and then" (for instance) "radical Islam could implode --- simultaneously squeezed from the outside by the United States and from within by substantial . . . differences among the branches of Islam."

For all of us asking the same question, "What's going to happen there next?" I believe the most enlightening answers are available right here -- in this beautifully written, deeply insightful book by Fouad Ajami: "The Foreigner's Gift: Americans, Arabs and Iraqis in Iraq."

A teacher at Johns Hopkins University ("2006 recipient of the Bradley Prize") Ajami enlightens us on why things will get better in Iraq - eventually. But in the meantime he says,

"Pity those men now hunkered down in Baghdad . . . as they walk a fine, thin line between the yearning for justice and retribution in their land, and the scrutiny of the outside world."

"In the fullness of time," the author says, "the Arab world's order of power will come to a grudging acceptance of the order that is sure to take hold in Baghdad." This is after all, a region which "respects the prerogatives of power." Of all Arab lands, "Iraq is the most checkered -- a frontier country at the crossroads of Arabia, Turkey and Persia" . . . and "Sunni Arabs in Iraq and beyond have never accepted (such) diversity."

The author quotes one of Iraq's "most respected scholar-diplomats" as saying "It is proper now, to speak of an `American Iraq' as once we spoke, in turn, of a Sumerian, Babylonian, Ottoman, and British (Sunni) Iraq."

The new reality is "American-SHIA." As a result, the author says, militant preachers railing against `American crusaders' and `Shiite heretics' cannot prevail.

Another good sign: Sunni regimes are not of one mind on Iraq: "Curiously," says the author, "the Arab state most likely to make peace with the new reality of Iraq is Saudi Arabia (whose) King Abdullah has read the wind with accuracy: He has a Shia minority in his domain (in the oil-rich eastern province) and he seems eager to cap the Wahhabi (SUNNI) volcano in the heartland of his kingdom."

"There is a pragmatism there," says the author, "that should give us cause for hope: a pragmatism "that lives by its own coin." In contrast "Jordan and Egypt present the odd spectacle of countries in the forefront of the anti-Shiite drive - but which have "no Shia citizenry in their midst." Regimes that "derive a good measure of their revenues from foreign powers -- the subsidies of Pax Americana to be exact." So the threat of Shiism is "a good, and lucrative, scarecrow for the rulers in Cairo and Amman: and the promise of standing sentry in defense of the Sunni order is what these two regimes have to offer both America and the oil states."

After his sure-footed assessment of why the current Maliki government in Iraq can succeed in its "marriage of convenience" with America, the author states that, with Saddam's execution, this prime minister "made himself a power in the vast Shia mainstream, America's success in Iraq now depends on him."

And with a "balance of terror" between Sunni and Shia, the "Sunni Arabs know that their old dominion is lost," (that) "they had better take the offer on the table . . . a share of oil revenues and access to political power -- in return for reining-in the violence and banishing the Arab jihadists."

This is the country "midwifed by American power," says the author. "We were never meant to stay there long. Iraq will never approximate the expectations we projected onto it in more innocent times. But we should be able to grant it the gift of acceptance, and yet another dose of patience - as it works its way out of its current torments.

"It's said that much of the war's `nobility' has been drained out of it - that we now fight not to lose, and to keep intact our larger position in the oil lands of the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf." Maybe "not the stuff of glory," Ajami says "but it has power and legitimacy all its own."

Fouad Ajami's text provides deeper insight into the complicated nature of Iraq. The relations between the Shia and the Sunnis often reminds one of the complicated relationship between the Catholics and the early Protestants as the Christian church altered its vision of Christianity. My understanding of the importance of tribalism and the various long-term family backgrounds of the current leaders emerging in Iraq has also been deepened. The value of America's intervention in Iraq is clearly favored by Ajami which is something I knew before I read the book, but reading this perspective has greatly improved my understanding of why we entered Iraq. Also, my understanding of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iran and the entire Middle East has grown. I had no idea how the other nations impacted the machinations of Iraq and each other until I read this book. Now when I read the news, I have a greater understanding of how the various nations impact each other. The beauty of Iraq is also clearly expressed and valued by Ajami - I had no idea about the great poetry of the region and its importance to its people. The descriptions of the Iraq landscape allow one to see positives about the region that are not read in the current media. Also, Ajami's portrayal of leaders who have long-term positive visions for Iraq and work towards those visions despite death threats and deaths of their family and other like-minded leaders, filled me with hope.

This is first of all a beautifully written book whose narrative flows effortlessly over a broad range of political, religious, and cultural issues that together describe the diverse elements that form Iraq. It is a unique book. Fouad Ajami provides the reader with excellent insights on the Muslim minority called Shia, the strange appeal of Saddam Hussein to Sunni Arabs, and the driving political-religious dynamic of the fundamentalist Islamic movements. In the course of doing this he also pays a gracious and sincere tribute to the courage, dedication, and just plain decency of most of the American military forces serving in Iraq. He also manages to clarify the current politics of the Semitic speaking Arab Near East and put into perspective its ambiguous relationship to Indo-European speaking Iran. All in all this is an excellent read and presents what appears to be an accurate description of post Saddam Iraq and the political and religious forces that are shaping its future. Finally he makes clear that Islam suffers from a host of internal contradictions and schisms that often make Muslims appear hypocritical and inconsistent.

This book is well worth reading. The reader, however, should be aware that much of the book is based on Ajami's subjective perceptions and is colored by his unique background. Yet, at least to this reviewer, Fouad Ajami is a careful and accurate observer whose knowledge of the Near East and of Arabic clearly qualify him as commentator on Iraq.

This is an elegantly written account of the valiant American effort to bring the Iraqi people the gift of independence and democracy. Fouad Ajami one of the world's most respected commentators on Middle Eastern Affairs made six trips to Iraq, spoke with a wide- range of Iraqis and Americans and argues, against what has become the general view, that the U.S. effort in Iraq is worthwhile and still bears a chance of success.
Ajami has for many years been a rare courageous voice, a person of Middle Eastern origin who understood that it is the people of the Middle East themselves who must be held responsible for their situation. Part of what he does in this book is write about the reign of terror imposed upon Iraq by the Zarqawi - led Sunni forces.
Ajami who is a Shiite speaks to a variety of Shiite leaders, and suggests that should the United States work properly, a future Shiite - dominated Iraqi regime would not fall into the hand of Iran. One of those he speaks with in this regard is the important somewhat mysterious Shiite leader Ali - al - Sistani.
However the ongoing and non- diminishing violence in Iraq, the daily casualties, the persistence of the Sunni insurgency all suggest that Ajami may well be over- optimistic. He in a sense resists the idea that Iraq and the Middle East are not ready for a major motion towards democracy, but from what we have seen in the past years there is no special sign of development towards that democracy anywhere. He too perhaps overestimates the Iranian tentacles , their determination and persistence in working towards an Iranian dominated, American - free Middle East.
At this point like many others initially supportive of the American effort to despose Saddam Hussein, I am not wholly convinced that there is a winning way for America in Iraq. More and more there is the sense that the Kurds in the North are going to go their own way, and the Sunnis and the Shiites also split and divide from each other. And that a new order is emerging which will have nothing to do with democracy or values of independence and freedom.
Ajami however believes otherwise, and this outstanding book will certainly make its readers better informed about the overall situation in Iraq, whether they wholly agree with his analysis , or not.





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This book was written by one who knows the territory, but is additionally an astute observer and a serious scholar of renoun.
Dr. Ajami, in a conversational English that is both easy to read and intriguing, discusses visits to Iraq and discussions with persons of all pursuasions, Iraqi (in Arabic) and American, and places them in current perspective. He of course does far more; he puts the events of today in historical and cultural perspective.
Iraq has always been a complex cultural and political melange; in this modern day of confusion and rupture it is ever more so, but today's events didn't begin yesterday. To understand today - and tomorrow - one must understand the day before yesterday. With all the books about the Middle East and Islam currently being made available Dr. Ajami makes a strong contribution by tieing the past with the present and the future.
The Foreigner's Gift is not an end all in Middle East reading and understanding, but it sure helps fit it all together and give it meaning.
Dr. Ajami is a good read whatever he writes.

This book, by an author from Lebanon and now a professor at Johns Hopkins University, is the best chance we "civilians" have at understanding not only what is at stake in Iraq, but more importantly the issues at work in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, as they are influenced by the religion, history, and culture of the people. I have seen nothing in the normal media that even comes close to offering the insight that this book does, and that includes not only TV and newspapers, but news magazines, blogs, and other books.

I expect a lot of the information in this book was available in other forms a few years ago, but now Mr. Ajami has included the fresh history of the Iraq war to further fill it out.

It should be required reading for all US citizens of voting age.

This is a short review. I liked the book but I felt it was somewhat too long and was lacking order. Sometimes the writer introduced a character only to say that this character knew another one and starts talking about the second one.

This is the second book I read by Ajami. I felt the same kind of confusion and lack of order in The Dream Palace of the Arabs, on the first chapter, the one about Lebanon. I tend to think that the whirlwind of characters, anecdotes, impressions, evaluations, sayings and images of the country is deliberate in these two cases: both places Lebanon during the Civil War and Iraq at the present are or were in the midst of a maelstrom of violence and sectarianism and Ajami wants to convey some of this overwhelming mayhem to the reader through this lack of order. The Foreigner's gift is like the chapter about Lebanon but through 343 pages!

Although I got tired sometimes, I liked it. The more I read about the Arab world, the more I appreciate the efforts of counted men and women to modernize their world, and I appreciate the obstacles they have to fight. Sometimes when reading about the politicians who want to make their country better but fight against unsurmountable odds and the inertia of the system and the people, I went on to think about Argentina (where I come from) and how it is not such a different situation (minus the homicide bombings). Hence, I was able to enter minds of some Arabs as if they were my own people and stop considering them an unknowable "other" (this doesn't apply of course to the pathological homicide bombers). Ajami is succesful in presenting a story of people reacting to great changes. And he is optimist. I hope that Iraq succeeds. This is a book for those who like America and for those who hate it. You can't hate what you know. And people need to know all the things that America is doing for the Iraqis, and how many Iraqis depend on the success of the reconstruction effort and the war on terrorism.

Ajami has fashioned a learned, lively account of the complexities and subtleties of a situation that many consdier a "quagmire." While he makes a strong case for America's good motives in Iraq, there is nothing propagandistic here. A native of Lebanon who teaches at Johns Hopkins, Ajami knows the region and its key players well. His book is enlivened with family backgrounds of the major figures in the struggle and by elegant reflections on those deeply ingrained cultural traits of the area that make it so diffcult for Americans to comprehend. He is especially effective in delineating the fault lines that run between Sunni/Shia and Arab/Persian. A must read.