This is a "slice of life" report on the reality of what is really happening in Iraq. It is nice to read a report that doesn't depend on the control by the neocons that is part of an embedded journalist's story. He was the first author to bring to me the news (since confirmed by Congressional hearings) that the Iraq "parliament has for over two year voted against our occupation of their sovereign country, wants us to set a date to leave, would help us to leave, believes that we are causing the problem, and refuses to give our country their oil. Se Congessional hearings on U N mandate for occupation of Iraq. M L G

I am placing an order for this book once I am done writing this 'review'...so, no I have not yet read it...but I have been reading Dahr's reports for the last 3+ years - you can subscribe to his dispatches at his website - and have found his work to be a hugely grounding element in my thoughts and feelings of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.
I had the pleasure of meeting Dahr in NYC in 2005 at one of his presentations on his trips to the country. I asked him how he ever came to the incredibly corageous decision to go to Iraq and he told me that he felt that if he *didn't* go, didn't do something, his head was going to explode. To be so motivated to actually put himself in a war zone is the kind of sincerity and passion that is sorely needed in the journalism of our time.
Dahr Jamail is one of my heroes.

Old-fashioned investigative journalism at its finest-- raw, chilling, full of humanity and heart-rending truth. This war has caused an entire Middle Eastern nation to pay bloody homage to American hegemony, like it or not.

Last September, a British poll of Iraqi citizens showed that over 70% feel much less safe. Up to 90% believe attacks on U.S.-led forces are 'justified'. The vast majority believe our presence in Iraq is a military occupation, a military takeover of their country, and is not in their best interest. This is why so many become 'insurgents'-- America's term for "Iraqi citizens who are fighting to rid their nation of an unwanted occupier". We built the largest, most secure U.S. embassy in history right there in Baghdad, and our enormous bases hardly appear temporary. This has eroded Iraqi confidence in our true motives.

An update from Dahr's website, April 14, 2008, about our "care" of Iraqi people:

"...Unemployment, and lack of medical care and safe drinking water in Fallujah remain a continuous problem. Freedom of movement is still curtailed. [Massive biometric checkpoints guard the entrances.]

"The city suffered two devastating U.S. military attacks during 2004. Many of the buildings were destroyed, or heavily damaged. Several collapsed under the heavy bombing, and were never rebuilt. The heaps of concrete slabs and piles of rubble remain where they were..."

"We wonder why we have been targeted by Americans since the first days of the occupation," said Dr. Mohammad Abed from al-Anbar University. "This city sacrificed thousands of its citizens through five years of occupation just because they said 'no' to a project [the war] that threatens their country's future."

Now a less visible form of destruction is being spread, he said. "The new wave of destruction is represented by tearing the social tissue apart. The Americans are paying tremendous amounts of money to get people of Fallujah to fight each other."

In 2006, Fallujah General Hospital, a damaged building with few doctors and no medicines, reported 6,000 new illness cases that were unknown before. Over 70% were cancers and abnormalities in children under 12. In the first six months of 2007 there were 2,447 cases, more than half of these children. New diseases previously unknown in the area are spreading like wildfire.

It is time for Americans to face the consequences of our actions. We sit in our living rooms cheering like ignorant fools for the Home Team-- when in reality, we are the bad guys-- we are the problem-- we are the terrorists who destroy children and homes and families and nations, far away from the American public eye, far away from public accountability, far away from the morals and democracy we think we are 'sharing' with the rest of the world.

Thank you Dahr for heeding the call to take you to the places few Americans allow themselves to go. This book is a true testament of the degree of devastation and misinformation we in the US are at times oblivious to. This book is a must read. Thank you for your life and for your calling.

Journalism has been called the "first draft of history" and Dahr Jamail's work is most certainly that. His book is an eyewitness look at the events of the war on Iraq from street level and through the eyes of the Iraqis, unfiltered by any official spin. For anyone wishing to make sense of the Iraqi peoples' reaction to the American invasion and occupation this book is indispensable.

One can feel the inevitable insurgency brewing by even the second chapter as the local people react to a foreign occupier who appears to care nothing for their well being. Politics being perception, whether the reader wishes to believe the Iraqis' account of the events or not, this book is a window into why the insurgency had so much popular backing.

I have my own opinions on the war and why America invaded but it is not my purpose to state them here. What I am hoping to do is convince prospective readers that should they wish to take a hard, unflinching look at Mesopotamia under American occupation and why things turned out the way they did this is the best book they can pick up.

Many histories will be written of Iraq at the beginning of the 21st century and works like "Beyond the Green Zone" will serve as their foundation.

Books of this ilk instill fear and terror in the US citizenry, the primary target of enemy terrorism. To the enemy, death and destruction to coalition forces by the enemy in Iraq is considered only collateral damage and is intended solely for consumption by the homeland citizenry.

Sadly, pacifists, the likes of Dahr Jamail and Jane Fonda are the enemy's source of delivery of their vital weapon of fear and terror to the homeland primary target.

Had the enemy been denied this aid and abetting, Iraq would probably have become a democracy by this time -- and we would not have lost so many military lives.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight for, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men."

British philosopher, John Stuart Mill in 1865




Armond "Si" Simmons
104 Wadsworth Lane
Pell City, AL 35128

205 338 7378
205 863 0207
psysim@coosahs.net

If you read only 1 book about what is going on in Iraq, due to the Bush/Cheney manipulated/illegal Occupation, this is without any doubt, "The Book To Read"! Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq

Thanks go out to the "Unembedded Journalist in Iraq" and author, Dahr Jamail, for his "Courage and Truthiness"!

Sgt. Allen G. Riegel ret
US Army 3/25th Inf. (VN)
wounded Vet

This is an excellent book. It tells the truth and is deeply touching. It's hard to read it and not be affected. I am getting copies for a lot of my friends since I believe it's important that people get first hand accounts of the war. Dahr put his own life at risk to bring the news to others. I hope that his message is widely read so the heartbreaking tragedy occuring in Iraq can be stopped and the region can move toward peace.

Beyond the Green Zone is a horrifying and disturbing read, but I highly recommend it. There's a demented joy to learning the truth no matter how horrible when you know you've been lied to for so long.

I can hear the criticisms now: How do you know you've been lied to? How do you know this book is true? But such critics never seem to realize that they are accepting the approved White House and Major Media storyline on faith and only being skeptical of ideas that challenge that chorus.

That's one way you know it's a lie: the chorus. When they're all saying the same thing, something is terribly wrong. It's human nature: When a reporter is embedded with a group of men with guns, their only means of protection in a hostile environment, is that reporter really going to criticize their unofficial bodyguards? Look how long it took for the American media to finally use the label "civil war" after years of referring to "sectarian violence."

There are several major groups that this book damns: 1) the military 2) the media 3) the corporate contractors and of course, 4) the war criminal planners: not just Bush and Cheney but the "think tank" junta for which Bush and Cheney are merely the public face.

A lot of Americans would likely be deeply offended if they were compared directly to a docile or fearful populace of Nazi Germany as that regime carried out genocide. However, that's what it appears is happening: genocide of the Iraqis while most Americans sit back and argue over who supports the troops more.

For those of you who are simple-minded, this is not an insult to the troops, and neither is this book except in the way that drawing attention to someone's actions serves as an insult because those actions are despicable.

This is the only thing I've read in the almost five years of this war that attempts to find out what the liberation promised by the war criminals Bush and Cheney looks like. What it looks like is nothing that I'd want to be liberated for: mass chaos, murder, impure water, no access to electricity, random bombings, collective punishment for neighborhoods that will not turn over insurgents, etc.

I greatly appreciate Mr. Jamail bringing the perspectives of the common Iraqi to readers world-wide. Where else are we hearing the voice of the Iraqi-on-the-street? What other media outlet greets the official military line with such skepticism?

Read this book and call for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney as well as an investigation into their activities with a view toward criminal prosecution. Thank you.

Larry Nocella
author of the novel, Where Did This Come From?
Where Did This Come From?

The US learned one thing from the Vietnam war...control the reporting of material which is critical of the war.

The Bush decision to embed journalists with the military and censor reportage aroused suspicion in my mind. I sought alternative reportage to obtain a balance . "Beyond the Green Zone " confirms what I learned from independent sources and I am grateful to Dahr Jamail for his courage and determination to expose the deception.

I'm halfway through the book after buying it a week ago, and it's tough to put down to do my homework! This book is an amazing and terrible story about what real Iraqis are suffering as my country destroys it through negligence and hired thugs; not to mention the actual military.

I'm tired of Petraeus and other Bush Goons telling me about how the war is going; I want to hear what the people we're "liberating" have to say about it. And they don't have very much good to say; Bechtel, for example, was supposed to install water treatment plants and pumps in a dying city, but instead painted houses for the Iraqis! Simply ridiculous.

When a sovereign nation cries out "please leave us alone" and yet we stay and continue to destroy the country house by house and turn a blind eye to the street crime now occurring because our troops are too busy indefinitely-detaining, or executing, any "terrorist" (that is, patriot fighting for a Free Iraq) they come across...who are the true Terrorists? Our government and the thugs they employ.

My thought is - show me a rightwinger and I'll challenge him/her to read any book I pick and I'll read any book they pick. This would be the book I would pick...not that I needed any convincing that Terrorist America is in the wrong in this sickening occupation, but this book could (and hopefully will) convince anyone who reads it!

A very disturbing and moving eye-witness account of the war in Iraq, more accurately characterized by the writer as a foreign occupation. Dahr Jamail demonstrates incredible personal and professional integrity as he brings to life in this slim volume the stories of those who are most impacted by the war: the people of Iraq. This book seriously challenges the notion that foreign occupation can bring about liberation. While told primarily from an Iraqi perspective, it gives both objective and subjective accounts of atrocities that war ultimately brings about. Reminds me of the saying, "absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Dahr Jamail reports with poignancy and conscience about the interminable occupation of Iraq, interviewing new-found friends and painting intimate portraits of the Iraqi people, gifting the reader with understanding of a complex and sophisticated culture. Beyond the Green Zone is a must-read for any American seeking depth of analysis and honesty in reporting. Jamail's personal bravery shines through the book from beginning to end.

Excellent insights into the occupation of Iraq from a clear-minded, warm-hearted man who obviously appreciates the opportunity to become intimate with a culturequite distinct from his own. Beyond the Green Zone confirms what many of us have been intuiting about the occupation of Iraq in spite of what mainstream media tells us. And Jamail is a great model for anyone who longs to dare to follow his/her sense of justice and truth to its intersection with deep passion and life purpose.

I've just finished Dahr Jamail's Beyond the Green Zone and it is a stunning book that is such an important read for anyone who wants to know what is really going on in Iraq. While our media and politicians debate and posture, Jamail brings us the voices of Iraqis, telling of their day to day experiences under the invasion and occupation. And as one of the few witnesses to the battles of Fallujah, his voice is crucial to our understanding of Iraq.

This is a very human book as well as exceptional journalism - and one that should be widely read.

If you consider it important to be informed this book is a MUST. The mainstream media cannot be counted on but we can be grateful that Dahr Jamail had the courage to go and find out what was really happening by going to Iraq unprotected by the US military. This is the real story that the mainstream either neglects or censors. Find out what is being done in the name the US bringing "freedom and democracy" to Iraq. Though sobering, it's fully readable, in fact it is a page turner. If you want to know the facts, and the faces behind them, this book is required reading.

In his book Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, Dahr Jamail has revealed to concerned people the true face of war. Devastating, personal and direct, his prose cut through the misinformation of corporate media. Jamail tells the true story of the people of Iraq, ordinary people like you and me, people who are suffering from the deliberate creation of a war that goes far beyond the Green Zone. If we are as brave as Jamail, we can see the effects on our daily lives. If not directly affected by having family members on any side of this godforsaken war, we can still feel the emotional toll that war takes. The toll that we pay is called separation and numbness. It is also a death toll, still on the rise. Jamail gives us a narrative from inside to understand the full spectrum of despair in Iraq, making his book required reading for all people who yearn for peace.

I like many others followed Dahr Jamail via his website and mailing list in an attempt for a different perspective on the Iraq war. His latest book "Beyond the Green Zone" is a re-telling of his many adventures reporting the U.S. occupation of Iraq on his own. Mr. Jamail is blunt and makes no apologies for his views. He states the he was against the war before it started and was disgusted by the U.S. media coverage of the war, so he decided to visit Iraq and see for himself what it was really like. The book comes from a mainly leftist perspective and that can make the book dull at times. Also a lot of the book's assertions of war crimes are solely based on witness testimony, which isn't enough in my books to make such grave assertions. I'm not saying that they aren't true but I take the charge of war crimes very seriously and believe that there needs to be more material evidence as well (including testimony and documents from the U.S. military which may see the light of day someday). I do think that there is a strong case for war crimes in Fallelujah, which makes up a good chunk of the book. Those points aside, this book is amazing at detailing what daily life is like under occupied Iraq and why it was destined to fail. The raids, the imposition by the U.S. on the Iraqis of their system, the resistance and daily suicide bombings, the failure to re-build, the whoring of the corporations etc... Mr. Jamail also helps to explain some basics of Arabic/Islamic culture and why Iraqis took offense to certain acts by U.S. troops, which western audiences might not get. This book is a great wake up call and in a great tradition of journalism that is so lacking nowadays.

In this beautiful harrowing book, Dahr Jamail tells the story of his time living and reporting on the streets of occupied Iraq. He writes with dedication, passion and accuracy. Finally here is a book about the children, the mothers and grandfathers, the land and the deep culture that are Iraq. It is also an eloquent condemnation of the role of the media in destroying that country as it sells the war for the corporations that benefit from it year and after year. Each chapter Jamail compares what he experienced first hand with what was reported in the in the US. The difference is staggering. Jamail reported on torture months before it became news. His accounts of Falluja have still not been reported. And the stories of countless massacres that have been covered up or changed are shocking. Jamail's courage and critical thinking (which might be the same thing) shine through his narrative. If everyone would really take in the story of this book, the wholesale destruction of Iraq for the profit of a few people which Jamail lays out here would be so outrageous that we could not let it continue.

Dahr Jamail's book is a window into the realities of the US occupation of Iraq. Beyond the Green Zone tells the real story that is hidden behind the Newspeak offered by the corporate media. This is the real story of this illegal war in Iraq. This is the information the Bush administration does not want the American people to hear.

Last Monday I saw Mr. Jamail speak in Philadelphia. Having returned from Iraq in April I am still hesitant to listen to what other people have to say about Iraq because most people simply do not know what is going on. Mr. Jamail does a great job in this book of looking at things with as an objective eye as he possibly can. He does not tout himself as the hero of the book which is what many journalists / travel writers have done. The book is much like his speaking style, direct, efficient, and clear.

All of America, starting with the highest levels of government, should read this book.

There are portions of the book I disagree with, but all in all, five stars.

Absolutely fascinating book and 100% accurate. I first heard Dahr Jamail in a documentary called "The Bases Are Loaded" about the American military mega-base/city/colonies in Iraq. Well he is one of the few to speak accurately about this subject. I spent 2.5 years as a civilian truck driver in Iraq and can attest to the HUGE GINORMOUS permanent bases (indoor swimming pools, outdoor pools, multi-story gyms, massage parlor, PX (as large as Walmart), 24hr AC barracks, big screen tvs, boxing rings, etc). We have set the stage to run Iraq and control our little puppets for centuries (not decades) to come. It is truly shameful and embarrassing. Thankfully there are still some credible journalists left willing to expose the truth.

Dahr Jamail is one of the only unembedded journalists covering the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and this is his published report. 'Beyond the Green Zone' is a harrowing account of a brutal occupation which refuses to be covered and discussed honestly in the corporate media. Jamail has uncovered a record of war crimes and crimes against humanity that is difficult to stomach; he has finally brought us the much needed perspective of the Iraqis themselves as they struggle to live in a torn country under military occupation.

This book is a compelling documentation of war. Jamail has uncovered horrendous atrocities in Fallujah and elsewhere, and he has debunked the view that the military objectives include the submission of the warring factions and the implementation of a democratic government. On the contrary, Jamail has revealed that the U.S. has often delayed elections and decision-making processes in an attempt to escalate the sectarianism and increase their military presence in the region. He has exposed the intentions of the U.S. as well as its puppet government in Iraq with regard to its attempt to control the oil resources of the region. Jamail writes: "On February 26, 2007, Iraq's cabinet approved a draft of an oil law that would set guidelines for nationwide distribution of oil revenues and foreign investment in Iraq's giant oil industry. The law would grant regional oil companies the power to sign contracts with foreign companies for exploration and development of oil fields, and open the door for investment by foreign oil companies" (287). Jamail has unearthed the practices of an imperial project in a compelling and first-hand account. Beyond the Green Zone is indispensable literature for anyone who wants to understand what is actually happening on the ground in Iraq.