Prize-winning Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his new book A Stranger in Your Own City, which features Iraqi perspectives on the United States’ invasion and occupation of Iraq. Abdul-Ahad talks about what Western media missed and also considers the early stages of the war and how resentment built over time. He reflects on the fall of Saddam Hussein, the ensuing Iraqi civil conflict, Western misconceptions of the country, and how the U.S. occupation planted the seeds of the Islamic State.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This episode of the podcast was produced by Ryan Reed.

Selected readings:

Ghath Abdul-Ahad

A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East’s Long War
Unembedded: Four Photojournalists on the Iraq War
“Baghdad Memories: what the first months of U.S. occupation felt like to an Iraqi” The Guardian
The Battle for Syria, FRONTLINE (documentary)

Others

Hans Fallada
“Bullshit Saviors: Helen Benedict and Nadia Hashimi on Depictions of the American Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 4, Episode 26
“The Legacy of ISIS: Dunya Mikhail on Yazidi Women Captives in Iraq,” Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 12

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S6 Ep. 24: Iraq 20 Years After the U.S. Invasion: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad on Iraqi Perspectives on the War and What Western Media Missed