Red Flags

“I was a prisoner before the war; I am no freer now after the war.”
This memoir of an Iraqi soldier writing under a pseudonym uses “red flags” as a metaphor for military targets during his country’s invasion by the United States in 2003. He recounts his involvement in Saddam Hussein’s army under threat of execution, and says danger came as much from the suspicious Iraqi government as from American invaders. Even the fall of Baghdad and the Hussein government has not led to a better life for his people, whom he says are still divided by war.

After leaving the Iraqi army, Amer Faris helped form an organization to address human rights violations in Iraq, then worked with an American company to train Iraqi forces and came to the United States.

Amer Faris
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 201
Bibliographic Info: 18 photos, index
Copyright Date: 2009
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4262-1
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5420-4
Imprint: McFarland

Foreword by Ibrahim El-Misri      1
Preface      5

PART I: A STORY OFWAR
1. Mazin and Ahmed      9
2. 111th Battalion, Air Defense Division      20
3. The Lambs of the Reeds      31
4. The Executed Man’s Brother      40
5. Radio Sawa      51
6. Red Flags      60
7. Top Secret      66
8. Radio Communication Set      74
9. Children Under Fire      82
10. It Is All Over      90
11. You Are Our Leader, Amer      97
12. The Escape      103
13. Homecoming      112
14. A Door Ajar      120

PART II: A DIARY OF OCCUPATION
15. Life in the Aftermath: April–May 2003      123
16. The Struggle for a New Iraq: May 2003–February 2005      134
17. Love, Chaos and a New Life: February 2005–April 2006      174

Index      193