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

Fouad Ajami, one of the world's foremost authorities on Middle Easternpolitics and the recipient of the 2006 Bradley Prize for OutstandingAchievement and the National Humanities Medal of 2006, offers a brilliant,illuminating, and lyrical portrait of the ongoing struggle for Iraq and ofthe American encounter with that volatile Arab land. In a new introduction,the author discusses the many major events that have taken place since thepublication of the hardcover, including the implications of Saddam'sexecution, the Baker-Hamilton Commission, and the return to Iraq of GeneralDavid Petraeus. He renders unsparingly the growing American disillusionmentwith the war and the struggle within Iraq between those keen to hold on tothe promise of the new country called up by America's war and othersdetermined to thwart that promise and overwhelm it with sectarian strife.Ajami situates the current unrest within the context of Iraq's recenthistory of dictatorship and its rich, diverse cultural heritage. He applieshis incisive political commentary, his broad and deep historical view, hismastery of the Arabic language and Arabic sources, and his lustrous prose toevery aspect of his subject, wresting a coherent, fascinating, and texturedpicture from the media storm of fragmented information.The Foreigner'sGiftis the book we all need to read in order to understand what ishappening in Iraq today and what the future might hold for all of us.Ajami, Fouad is the author of 'Foreigner's Gift The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq', published 2007 under ISBN 9780743236683 and ISBN 0743236688.