Product Description

“He is one of the few Western journalists to get inside the Sunni insurgency, and his book contains a memorable portrait, among other things, of Fallujah under the chaotic rule of the mujahideen.” —The New York Review of Books

“Represents brave reportage and significantly increases our understanding of what Rosen describes as an already raging civil war.” —Publishers Weekly

“If you want to gain a better understanding and tangible feel, on a pragmatic, smell-of-the-streets level, of the cause-and-effect cycle of coalition actions upon the Iraqi people, then Rosen’s book is a good place to start.” —Washington Monthly

Journalist Nir Rosen unabashedly chronicles the violent shift of Iraq from the toppled regime symbolized by Saddam’s fallen statue to a country holding its first elections in 2005 while descending into civil war. Fluent in Iraqi-accented Arabic, Rosen moved beyond the Green Zone and infiltrated the inner world of the average Iraqi during his one-and-a-half year stint. He bravely experienced the Iraqis’ plight and articulates in The Triumph of the Martyrs the factors contributing to their suffering, notably the palpable tension between the Iraqis and the Americans and the bitter divisions between the Sunnis and the Shi’as. To give proper voice to these dissensions, Rosen interviewed emerging sect leaders; joined Shi’as on their annual pilgrimage; and spoke with Iraqi civilians about their experiences with American soldiers and why they so vehemently oppose the occupation. Rosen’s risky reportage, however, also brought him to the brink of death, with suspicious Iraqis interrogating him at gunpoint and bombs exploding dangerously close to his living quarters. In his account of the chaotic fledgling republic, Rosen fluidly permeates the boundaries among its warring sides. The Triumph of the Martyrs is the first paperback edition of the book published in hardcover in 2006 as In the Belly of the Green Bird.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #391253 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

About the Author
Nir Rosen is a journalist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Time, Harper’s Magazine, The New Republic, and Salon. In addition to English, he speaks Arabic, Serbo Croatian, and Hebrew. In April 2003, he moved to Baghdad to cover the American-led intervention in Iraq and spent a year and a half under occupation with the Iraqi people. He has also reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and the Congo. He is a fellow at the New York University Center on Law and Security. He lives with his wife, Tiffany, in Lebanon.

Customer Reviews

Incredible reporting from the inside of Iraq
In this amazing book Nir Rosen writes an intresting first hand account of the American occupation of Iraq. Being fluent in Arabic and looking like a local he could move unhindered outside the green zone and report what was going on on the streets of Iraq. He begins by describing how the once surpressed Shia muslims now started gaining power and influence once the Sunni Baathist regime had been removed by the coalition forces. Iraq has a long history of occupations, from the Mongols, the Byzantines, the Persians and the British during the 1920s. This saw the rising of Muqtada al sadr, a young Shia cleric who had relatives who also where martyred shia clerics. He had mutch popular support in Sadr city, the huge slum area in Baghdad.

Originally most clerics urged the Iraqi population to withhold their attacks on American soldiers, and not to wage jihad. This was to see if the Americans would leave the country as soon as they said they would. There was also a great fear amongst locals that the Americans where collaborating with the Israelis in planning to take over the countries wealth. But during the course of the American occupation the Iraqi peoples feelings grew stronger and they eventually started demanding that the Americans leave. This came about because of different things. One of them was the way that the American soldiers treated their prisoners. They barged into Iraqi homes at night and humilated the men infront of their families. The military strike on the city of Fallujah was another defining moment in the Amrican occupations history. This battle really moved a large part of the Iraqi population to rally against the Americans. The fact that the new American government fired all the Sunni military was also a big mistake. It left tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers without a job and without wages. These men would eventually join up in various resistance groups. Clerics all over the country where now calling for Jihad, war against the occupational power.

Zarqawi was the name of a man who would play a huge role in the Iraq war. He had been a fighter in Afghanistan who had made it into Iraq. He had early on joined a radical religious group and in 2003 was found to be responsible for blowing up the UN headquarters in Baghdad. Zarqawis goal was to turn Iraq into "a hell for all its residents", which would mainly be based on creating a conflict between Shias and Sunnis, but also preventing the new government from gaining power. To him democracy was a heresy thretaning Islam. A godless ideology that placed man before god, it had to be stopped. Zarqawi started a second Al Qaida operation in Iraq. He managed to create a huge amount of chaos within the country, stirring up what almost became a civil war between shia and sunni muslims. Zarqzwi was later killed by coalition forces.

But there where many different resistance groups operating within the country. Some consisting of foreign fighters funded by money that came from outside the country. Other groups where just maffia like gangs of thugs that used the chaotic energy inside the country to get rich. Shaking people down for money, kidnapping etc. Baghdad had also become a split up city. Where shias and sunnis who had before mixed freely with each other now became forced to live in walled off ethnically cleansed neighbourhoods. These areas where guarded by different militias that expelled all unwanted elements. Creating large amounts of refugees. Shias often attacked radical Sunni clerics and former Batthist suspected of supporting the resistance. While the sunni resistance often targeted the general Shia population. This did not have much effect and the Shias took power in the 2005 elections. This has spread tension throughout the region. The Saudi foreign mnister complained that the Americans had handed Iraq over to Iran(who where also Shia). Both Saudi Arabia and Jordan provided the Sunni resistance within Iraq support to fight against both the Americans and the Shia "collaborators". Iran is providing alot of support as well to wage war against the Sunnis. Eventually the feeling developed between Iraqis that they could no longer trust each other.

The American troop "surge" that was implemented by the Bush adminitration brought down the levels of violence in Iraq. But this wasnt so much because of more boots on the ground. What the Americans had started doing was to put Sunni militias on their payroll. These where warriors who had previously been atacking them. But this put the Americans in a precarious sitiuation. They supported a Shiite government and at the same time paid off Sunni militias to fight along side them. These two groups opposed and fought each other, and one can expected a clash between the two when the Americans pull out and go home, prolonging the fighting and increasing the risks of a real civil war. So this is where statements by American politicians (including Clinton and Obma) that says that Iraqis have to stop killing each other and that they have to "step up" and that the Iraqis are the ones to blame for the failure of democracy, are wrong. These statements are wrong because before the Americans came there had been no sectarian violence within the country. This civil war was a direct effect of the American invasion. There is talk now of pulling American forces out of Iraq, but they will never leave all together. There are large bases around the country that are "built to last" for the "enduring presence of the Americans." But unfortunatley Iraq has suffered a very heavy blow to its human capital- Apart from all the brutal loss of life within country, Iraq has lost most of its intellectuals, professionals, political elites, moneyed and educated classes- all these people have fled.

A rare set of insights highly recommended for any military history collection
Journalist Nir Rosen lived and reported in occupied Iraq: his TRIUMPH OF THE MARTYRS: A REPORTER'S JOURNEY INTO OCCUPIED IRAQ reveals his year and a half in Iraq, detailing its violent changes to its first elections in 2005. He speaks fluent Iraqi-accented Arabic, so was able to go beyond the usual reporter's turf into the homes of average Iraqi: THE TRIUMPH OF MARTYRS thus offers up a rare set of insights highly recommended for any military history collection.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch