Iraq Then and Now: A Guide to the Country and Its People

With over 32 months of time spent in Iraq in the last five years, I found this "travel guide" extremely interesting. My soldiers and I spend months trying to determine various aspects of the culture and attempting to minimize our impacts. We have partnered with cultural anthropologists and other experts to help us understand subtleties between Sunni and Shia, urban and rural, sheiks and clerics. Much of our information collection centers around Islamic holidays and practices in order to maintain stability and promote Iraqi rule of law. This book serves as a useful reference for a variety of cultural and historic matters within Iraq. I have purchased numerous copies of this book to provide to my leaders to help sensitize them to issues like preserving historic sites, understanding refugee issues, and internally displaced persons. In one instance a young company commander stopped digging at a local Iraqi patrol base after finding shards of pottery and other possible historic remnants. Although the local Iraqi Army leader told him not to worry about it, the company commander reported the incident. After bringing scientists from Hilla, the team declared that the artifacts could potentially date back to Alexander the Great. The US Forces stopped digging and roped off the area to prevent any possible damage from military operations. I found this publication a timely addition to my bookshelf and have opened it frequently to inform my soldiers about various cities and provinces in Iraq. Geoff Hann just led the first authorized western tour of Iraq since the start of the war, with the exception of his forays into Kurdistan in 2007. The ministry of tourism continues to grow capacity in order to maintain and improve cultural heritage sites, while welcoming travelers into the country. Of course, Iranian and other Shia pilgrims have been travelling to and within Iraq since 2003. They mainly visit the Shia religious sites of Najaf, Karbala, and Khadamiyah in Baghdad. However, Iraq seems to be stable enough in some areas (mainly Kurdistan in the north) to begin opening its borders to non-Muslims in order to share its rich heritage with the rest of the world. Although Iraq remains a country with dangerous elements, its security forces gain momentum each passing month. With the reduction of British and US Forces, we could see the tourist industry expand for westerners. For the time being, however, I would not take my family to most areas of Iraq. Too many extremists in the militias and former insurgents have the possibility of taking advantage of kidnapping opportunities presented by western tourists.