Acknowledgments
This book has been a long time coming. I began writing it in 2005, while still in the Army, and finished the first draft in
2007, after having moved to New York City. Its journey to publicationâand into its present formâhas been circuitous and difficult, with many obstacles and hazards along the way, but also with many friends and allies who by their close reading helped make the work better, and who by their support helped keep it alive.
My greatest thanks go to my editor at Soho Press, Mark Doten. His ambitious vision for
War Porn
was a refining volcano, and his insight, care, and boldness have been been fresh air and cool water to a parched and weary traveler. I can't thank him enough. I'm also immensely grateful to Bronwen Hruska, Amara Hoshijo, Abby Koski, Rachel Kowal, Gary Stimeling, and everybody at Soho: a truly exemplary publishing team. I feel very lucky to have wound up working with people who care so deeply about booksâas provocations, as contributions to a conversation, and as works of art. Thank you.
Many thanks to early readers Helen Benedict, Peter Blackstock, E. L. Doctorow, Jim Fitzgerald, Matt Gallagher, Travis Just, Phil Klay, Kseniya Melnik, Shakir Mustafa, Nawal Nasrallah, Hilary Plum, Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya, Jacob Siegel, J.W., and Martin Woessner. Further, I am awed and amazed by the consistently superhuman levels of patience, acumen, and brilliance my partner, Sara Marcus, has been able to access reading and rereading this book. I owe whatever is beautiful or humane in itâor in myselfâto her wisdom, perspicacity, and love.
In 2014, I had the chance to go back to Baghdad for
Rolling Stone
. This visit was an important experience in its own right, but it also helped me rework the middle chapters of this book with a more informed eye. Thanks to Will Dana for making the trip happen, to Alison Weinflash for arranging the logistics, and to Phoebe St. John for her painstaking fact checking. Special thanks go to everyone who helped me connect with people in Iraq and to the Iraqis and journalists there who took the time to talk with me: Isra Abdulhadi, Samr Abdul-Satar, Ghadah Abdul-Sattar, Ali Adhab, Sarem Dakhel Ahmed, Jane Arraf, Raad al-Azzur, Hassan Blasim, Matt Bradley, Hanaah Edwar, Borzou Daragahi, Haider Falih, Dexter Filkins, Alice Fordham, Haider Hashim, Naseer Hassan, Ahmed Farouk Lafta, Quil Lawrence, Christopher Merrill, Nadia Fayidh Mohammed, Soheil Najam, Ayman Oghanna, Ned Parker, Methaq Waleed, Kael Weston, the English students at Mustansiriyah University, and all the others on Mutannabi Street, in the Shorja Market, and at the polls in al-Saydiya. I am especially grateful to my interpreter on that trip, Aziz Alwan, may he rest in peace, and to my driver, Ahmed Qusay: brave, courteous,
patient, and streetwise, they guided me through the labyrinth. I would have been lost without them.
My first visit to Baghdad, from 2003 to 2004, was a very different kind of labyrinth, and relied on a different network of support. Thanks to Lieutenant Chiarrez, Staff Sergeant Hayes, Homan, Lieutenant Juarez, Sergeant First Class Mitchell,
Nick Lehman (RIP), “Smokey” Robinson, Timmy Shore, and Javier Velasco for helping me stay alive and sane out there. FTA 4evah.
Bits of this book were published in different form in
canon
,
CITY
,
Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War
(Da Capo 2013), the
New York Times
,
Prairie Schooner
,
Theory and Event
, and
Warrior Writers
. These parts are reprinted here with grateful acknowledgment.