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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Read, December 31, 2007
This review is from: Swimming Up the Tigris: Real Life Encounters with Iraq (Hardcover)
If you believe, as I do, that the war against Iraq is one of the most important issues facing people in the US and world-wide, then you must read this book.
Independent journalist Barbara Nimri Aziz traveled throughout Iraq, beginning in 1989 in the days after the end of the Iran/Iraq war and up until the most recent disastrous invasion and brutal occupation. Her quest as an anthropologist was to document Iraqi society. She became a reluctant war correspondent.
This book documents the terrible years of grinding deprivation that was Iraq under the deadly US/UN sanctions. Why look at that period? Because everything that is happening today is rooted in the merciless sanctions period where more than 1.5 million people perished unnecessarily.
Every family in Iraq was touched. Everybody there would never be the same. Aziz writes brilliantly and compassionately about the people of Iraq, the ones we never hear from. The ones whose destiny is tied up with ours so completely.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil, February 15, 2009
This review is from: Swimming Up the Tigris: Real Life Encounters with Iraq (Hardcover)
Michael Rubin obviously did not read Dr. Barbara Nimri Aziz' book, "Swimming Up the Tigris". From the lies, half-truths, and distortions of fact contained in his "review" of that publication, he did not even read its dust-cover. If he had, he would have seen the comment by Scott Ritter, chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, 1991-1998: "A must-read book which puts a human face on an Iraqi people dehumanized by simplistic, misleading, and inaccurate media accounts before, during, and after America's illegitimate invasion and occupation of their homeland." Rubin's kindergarten name-calling in his "commentary" also discloses that he never looked at the author's credentials (some of which are also contained inside the dust-jacket's back cover: "Barbara Nimri Aziz is a Fulbright scholar and veteran anthropologist..."
Unlike Michael Rubin, I have read the book and I have heard Dr. Barbara Nimri Aziz speak. The work is an accurate, succinct portrayal of a betrayed and savaged people, a people who invented the wheel, who invented writing, who invented accountable government, a people with 5,000 years of recorded history behind them, a history reduced to dust and ashes, like the Mesopotamian treasures of the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad.
In her book, Dr. Barbara Nimri Aziz moves from the general, the broad sweep of recent, deplorable history, to the specific, illuminating dark corners of that story by recounting individual Iraqi experiences to America's violation of its Constitution and the Law of Nations. The author covers, inter alia, Iraqis in America, the medical system (or what's left of it), sick children, farmers, and pharmacies without drugs. These are stories about people from all walks of life, part of a once-vibrant society. Even if only part of what Rubin had said were true, it would not negate Dr. Barbara Nimri Aziz' experience and the months of careful anthropological documentation set forth in her book.
I heartily recommend this publication to anyone with an open mind (increasingly hard to find in the United States) who wants a highly-readable, comprehensive account of life in Iraq today as well as its costs, both to this country, to Iraq, and to the world. Read this book and you will understand what an Iraqi refugee recently told me: "We were all better off under Saddam Hussein."
Unlike Michael Rubin, who, in his review, doesn't disclose his background with the Bush Administration, his connection to the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, his advocacy of constant war in the Middle East, and his ties to Daniel Pipes, pro-Israeli hate-monger, I will provide a bit of my experience: I am a former Foreign Service Officer once assigned to the Middle East, where I traveled widely. I am now an attorney in private practice in the Washington, D.C. area who has published articles on national security issues in a variety of magazines.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Iraqi People Speak, February 27, 2009
This review is from: Swimming Up the Tigris: Real Life Encounters with Iraq (Hardcover)
As an American expat living in Ecuador who has adopted the Latin rhythm, it takes me a long time to get around to doing anything these days. After three months of carrying around "Swimming Up the Tigris", I finally found the time to read it. It was worth every minute.
In my opinion, it is the single most informative book, article, or report I have ever read about Iraq. It is gripping, depressing, anger-provoking...a roller-coaster ride of emotions which,in the end, left me feeling embarrassed to be an American.
Aziz does away with the mind-numbing and confusing statistics that form the core of nearly every other writer's work on recent Iraqi history. She doesn't count the bodies; she doesn't dissect the Iraqi society by religion or clan as many self-styled Mideast "experts" do. What she does is provide a sweeping portrait of Iraqi society from the late 80's to 2003 through the eyes, ears, and voices of Iraqis who lived through these turbulent times. She lets the Iraqis---farmers, diplomats, mothers, students, military, etc---tell it like it was and is. She presents a devastating portrait of what it is actually like to live in a state of war in an internationally isolated country under relentless attack.
The larger question she poses is a question that all Americans would do well to ask themselves: How would we feel if we had Iraqi or Chinese or Mexican troops patrolling our streets, bombers in our skies ? How would we deal with 10+ years of sanctions which required approval by the UN to import just about anything ? Where would we be without our Asian and European imports ? How would we deal with DU bombs exploding in our cities, our factories, our fields ? Would we accept a foreign country setting up an Abu Ghraib in America in the name of liberty and democracy ? What would our reaction be to our museums being looted, our citizens tortured, our loved ones dying of cancer ?
I know money is tight these days....there is little left over after the empire's needs are taken care of. But skip a couple of Starbucks stops and grab a copy of this book-----it might be the best money you spend this year!
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