by Barbara Nimri AzizFrom the publisher:
As Americans went about their daily lives in the 1990s, few could imagine what Iraqi men and women faced under the brutal sanctions imposed by the UN and enforced by the United States. Barbara Nimri Aziz, a frequent visitor to Iraq, saw first-hand what life was like for Iraqis during the long years of the embargo.
Swimming Up the Tigris reveals Aziz's skill as both a journalist and an anthropologist. In the book, she allows ordinary Iraqis to speak directly to us. We learn of the breakdown of Iraq's once exemplary medical system, and of needless deaths as a result of poor healthcare. We hear of deprivations, aerial bombardments, and local efforts to fight an embargo viewed by many as unjust. Drawing on intimate sources inside Iraq, the author reveals disparities between news reports of unfolding events and what Iraqi men and women were actually experiencing in the months preceding the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
By revisiting this critical period, Aziz sheds light on the illegal and questionable tactics used by the United States to destroy Iraq through the sanctions, well before the WMD ruse, and provides context to more fully understand the current failed occupation and worldwide anti-U.S. sentiments.
"Few could encapsulate, as Barbara Nimri Aziz has done, the spirit, laughter, courage, and tears of the people of this extraordinary, complex land, where civilization flourished before Mohammed or Christ walked the earth. Every American and British politician should read this book and sink to their knees in shame."--Felicity Arbuthnot, journalist, broadcaster, and senior researcher for John Pilger's award-winning documentary "Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq"
"This first-hand account of the effects of sanctions on the Iraqi people is rich in description and provides a much-needed human perspective on the beleaguered Iraqi people."--Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Rhode Island College
"Captures the depth of Iraqi suffering under the impact of the inhuman sanctions and wars like no other book has."--Naseer H. Aruri, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
"Barbara Aziz has written a must-read book which puts a human face on an Iraqi people dehumanized by simplistic, misleading and inaccurate media accounts before, during and after America's illegitimate invasion and occupation of their homeland. She also puts an inconvenient truth to the lies and misrepresentations often held as fact by many Americans concerning the reality of life in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, the awful impact of economic sanctions on the Iraqi people before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the sophistication and depth of a thousands-year old culture that is in the process of being destroyed by the combined forces of greed, hubris and ignorance." --Scott Ritter, chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq
