UFPPC (www.ufppc.org) — Digging Deeper CIV: November 16, 2009, 7:00 p.m.

Dexter Filkins,

The Forever War

(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008; Vintagepaperback June 2009).

[

Thesis.

Despite its tragic nature and itshorror, the Iraq war has not corruptedAmerican moral goodness.]

Epigraphs.

Cormac McCarthy; HermanMelville.

Prologue: Hells Bells.

Descriptionglorifying American mayhem retakingFallujah (to the tune of AC/DC's song"Hells Bells") from the "medieval thrall"of "jihadis," witnessed as an embeddedreporter in Fallujah in November 2004;the experience made Filkins feel like "[a]child in his crib in the care of his parents,they nineteen and me forty-three" (4; 8;3-9).

PART ONE / KABUL, AFGHANISTAN,SEPTEMBER 1998Ch. 1: Only This.

Vignettes of life inAfghanistan under the Taliban,represented as fanatical ignorance thatovercame the anarchy of the warlords(13-37). “I couldn’t comprehend the painor the fortitude required to endure it”(20).

Ch. 2: Forebodings.

Interview withAhmad Shah Massoud, who shows FilkinsArab jihadis he has taken prisoner (38-43).

Third World.

Filkins wandersaround the World Trade Center site afterthe 9/11 attacks (44-47).

Ch. 3: Jang [the Dari word for ‘war’].

B-52s bombing Afghanistan, from thepoint of view of the Taliban: “And thenfinally they just gave up and ran” (49;48-50). The Taliban as soldiers who havefought “too much” (53; 50-53). Fightersswitch allegiances easily (53-55).Vignettes of surrendering Taliban fighters(55-57). Taloqan, freed from the Taliban(58-59). Mazar-i-Sharif (59-61). A youngwounded Saudi’s account of how hecame to be there (61-63). More patheticvignettes (64-67).

PART TWO / BAGHDAD, IRAQ, MARCH2003-Ch. 4: Land of Hope and Sorrow.

Encounters with Iraqis who are as if mentally ill, “[not] survivors so much asleftovers . . . ruined byproducts of terribletimes” (72; 71-74). The interrogationcenter in Baghdad called Al-Hakemiya(74-75). Iraqi hospitality (75). AbdulRazzaq al-Saiedi’s long search for hisbrother Sadoon, already executed forhearing someone else denounce Saddam(76-77). Vignettes from the liberation of Safwan, a frontier town (77-80). Wijdanal-Khuzai, a murdered woman politician(80-82). Falluja, which in Filkins’sretelling seems to deserve to be“destroyed” for spurning Americanblandishments and then murdering fourAmerican contractors (85; 82-86).

Ch. 5: I Love You, March 2003.

Amerciful American doctor trying to helpan Iraqi dying after apparently being shotby “his own people” six days into theinvasion (87-88). Vignettes of Iraqis andAmerican soldiers (88-94).

Ch. 6: Gone Forever.

Vignettes of liberated Iraqis, many of them distinctlyungrateful (95-108).

Video.

Filkinstakes shelter from urban fighting in avideo store (109-10).

The Kiss.

Joggingin Baghdad among friendly Iraqis in thesummer of 2003 (111-13).

Ch. 7: A Hand in the Air.

Vignettes of communication difficulties; Americansare presented as naïve and Iraqis astreacherous liars (114-23). Negativeportrait of the Mahdi Army and Muqtada

al-Sadr (123-24). Iraqis “play” Americansin the town of Garma (125-28). Iraqis inMosul glad two American soldiers havebeen murdered (128-30). Malevolenthatred of Americans in Ramadi (130-33).

Blonde.

An American captain tells howhe pretended to sell a blonde woman inhis company to Iraqi males as a way toget all the men out of their houses tosearch the houses for guns (134-35).

Ch. 8: A Disease.

Bremer visits amaternity hospital; Iraqi doctors call forelectricity and security (136-39). Thehospital records keeper says that“Democracy has ruined this hospital” bylowering work standards (139-41). In Al-Kut in Wasit Province, Bremer blows off Iraqis who warn of security problems(141-44).

The View from the Air.

Efforts to get a wider perspective fromthe air result in an impression that “theplace below would never change and wewould never leave” (148; 145-48).

Ch. 9: The Man Within.

Col. NathanSassaman tried his best to realize theU.S. project but in the end was forced byIraqi obstinacy and resistance to usebrutal methods; he left the army and waslucky to avoid prosecution for coveringup an Iraqi drowning caused by his men(149-67).

Ch. 10: Kill Yourself.

Often gruesomestories about suicide bombers (168-84).

The Cloud.

Viewing a bomb blast as abreak from jogging (185).

Mogadishu.

Marines briefed on what constitutes“hostile intent” (186-88).

Ch. 11: Pearland.

In this, the book’slongest chapter and perhaps its heart,Filkins recounts sometimes shockingvignettes from his time covering theNovember 2004 fighting in Falluja (189-213).

Habibi.

Jogging in the heat, inshorts (214-17).

Ch. 12: The Vanishing World.

Acts of enmity begin in late 2003; “Falluja wasalways the worst. . . . It was the spring of 2004 when we lost the country—as aplace to go, I mean” (219; 218-22). “Itwas one of the truisms in Iraq that itwould be better to be captured by Shiiteguerrillas than Sunni ones” (222).Security precautions taken by journalists;“Iraq was so complex, its ways solabyrinthine, that trust, in the end, wasall we had. If we had tried to understandwhat was really going on outside, if wehad tried to understand the pressuresthe Iraqis were working under, we wouldhave left the country” (224; 222-26).Warzer Jaff, Kurdish

New York Times

employee who guided and protectedFilkins (226-28). Green Zone security(228-31). Vignettes (231-33).

Communiqués (I).

Texts (234-37).

Ch. 13: Just Talking.

Vignettes of electoral politics and voting in Iraq (239-44).

Ch. 14: The Mahdi.

The effect of theMahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr(represented by Filkins as anirresponsible, callow fanatic) was to stripaway the illusory façade of the Americanpolitical project, based on exiles courtingthe favor of the Ayatollah Sistani (245-48). The battle for Najaf in August 2004(248-52). A narrow escape after beingseized by Mahdi Army fighters (252-53).

Ch. 15: Proteus.

An impressionisticaccount of “the mystery of” AhmadChalabi as a hero—a gifted, hard-working, exemplary figure leaving behindhis Western associates and “enter[ing]his Islamist phase,” adapting to the newrealities in Iraq (261; 256; 254-66).

Your Name.

Jogging again (267-68; cf.111-13, 214-17, 292-95).

Communiqués(2).

Excerpts from documents giving aglimpse of Shia-Sunni hostility (269-71).

Ch. 16: The Revolution Devours ItsOwn.

A revenge tale in which AbuMarwa finds and kills Syrian Al-Qaedaexecutioners who killed his uncle (272-

77). [Note: A different version of thisappeared in the

New York Times

of Jan.12, 2006; in it, the most grisly element,the drinking of the blood of themurderers by the widow of the victim, isabsent.]

The Normal.

Tashreeya, anIraqi neighborhood of 5,000 inside theGreen Zone where “the chaos had nevercome” (279; 278-80).

Ch. 17: The Labyrinth.

A complicatedtale involving Ahmad, a marginal Iraqiuseful in trying to help kidnappedreporter Jill Carroll, and the CIA (281-91).“It’s an axiom of journalism that the bestsources are often people of marginalrepute” (283). CIA “deputy director forIraq” tells Filkins that “[Iraqis’ mindswork differently. Totally nonlinear. Nostraight lines. No beginning, no end”(285).

The Wall.

After four years,Filkins is “numb”; jogging is “the onething left . . . I wasn’t numb to” (294;292-95).

Ch. 18: Fuck Us.

Brief sketches of marines guarding the “governmentcenter” in Ramadi (296-306).

Ch. 19: The Boss.

Interview withMamoon Sami Rashid, governor of Ramadi and a marked man (307-10).Vignettes of ineffectual American efforts(310-14).

Ch. 20: The Turning.

Iraq’s civil war,“had taken months to get going andeven more months to spot” (316; 315-18). Horrors: “Electric drills were aShiite obsession. . . . The Sunnispreferred to behead, or to kill themselveswhile killing others” (319; 319-21).“[T]he death squads became official”(321). Iraqis’ comments on the civil war(321-27).

Ch. 21: The Departed.

The death frommortar attack of 26-year-old Terry Lisk,an American soldier (328-29). TheShamoons, a Christian family, fleesBaghdad (329-31). A visit to the grave of Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) (331-32). Avisit to British WWI graves (331-34).

Epilogue: Laika.

[Laika, the dog thatdied in space in 1957, is a symbol of thespiritual plight of those who cannotreestablish connection when “back in theworld” after experiencing the Iraq war.]What happened to people mentioned inthe book (334-38). Khalid Hassan, a pro-American Palestinian Iraqi killed byinsurgents (338-39). Filkins experiencesan inability to communicate with thosewho have not been in Iraq (339-40). Buthe can relate to the families of U.S. wardead (340-42).

Acknowledgments.

The Middle Easterntradition of hospitality.

New York Times

"bosses." Editors at Knopf. Iraqis whohelped him. Murdered colleagues. Journalists in Baghdad. Photographers.Iraq's "leaders, who always made timefor me" (345). Soldiers. NiemanFoundation curator. Friends, family.Ends with a cryptic note: "I fared betterthan many of the people I wrote about inthis book; yet even so, over the course of the events depicted here, I lost theperson I cared for most. The war didn'tget her; it got me" (346).

Notes.

7 pp.

Index.

14 pp.

About the Author.

Dexter Filkins

hascovered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraqfor the

New York Times

since 2001. Heworked for the

Los Angeles Times

beforethat, heading up the New Delhi bureau.He shared a 2009 Pulitzer Prize forAfghanistan and Pakistan coverage withother

New York Times