Book Club #3

For the second reading assignment, our group read the next three chapters of the novel which included chapters 4-6.  This section delved into a lot of the customs, traditions, and feelings regarding American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.  I remember at a few points that some of the Iraqis expressed that they desired normalcy in their everyday lives as the Iraqis often "stood up and reached for it"(82) when it presented itself.  While reading this novel I can't shake that notion that has almost been implanted in my mind that Iraq is bad and Afghanistan is bad and that everyone who lives in those nations is bad.  Why do I feel this way?  My country has portrayed them as horrible people when the majority of them are much like our own citizens who are governed and led by the wrong people.  This happens in our own nation and has happened in the pass.  Not everyone was a member of the Ku Klux Klan but southerners got a horrible reputation because of the group's beliefs and treatments of non-Caucasian races.  At one point in our history we even held a concentration camp for Japanese people on our homeland soil after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the events that ensued.  I was also angry when one of the Islamic people expressed that "the Americans did not allow us to have a proper ceremony" (107).  What right do we have to change cultural customs such as burial ceremonies?  I understand helping to renovate government policies but not something as spiritual and religious as a burial ceremony.  Yes, Saddam Hussein created a living hell for his people however, he was a martyr and the people should have had the right to express any grief they held properly according to their belief system.  As I read further I am gaining a greater appreciation for the people in the Middle East.