Misguided Expectations and Complex Challenges in Post-Invasion Iraq

This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with award-winning Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad. During the conversation, Abdul-Ahad discusses the fallout from the war and U.S. occupation, his career reporting from Iraq, and the ways that working alongside leading journalists influenced his work. Then, Jon continues the conversation with Natasha Hall and Leah Hickert, discussing the legacies of sectarianism in Iraq and Lebanon.

• Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War, Penguin Random House, 2023.
• Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, "Guns, cash, and frozen chicken: the militia boss doling out aid in Baghdad," The Guardian, March 20, 2023.
• Transcript, "Ghaith Abdul-Ahad: Iraq Through Iraqis' Eyes," CSIS, August 22, 2023.
• Photo credit: Rena Effendi.