The Ragged EdgeA US Marine’s Account Of LeadingThe Iraqi Army Fifth Battalion

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Early reviewers are saying The Ragged Edge isn't a typical war memoir, isn't a typical Iraq story, isn't the typical American take on the Arab world. That might have to do with The Ragged Edge being the first Iraq War book that bothers with the Iraqis themselves.

Michael Zacchea was the first Westerner to try to build a Middle Eastern army from scratch since Lawrence of Arabia did it in 1916. Michael had to immerse himself entirely in Iraqi culture — or I should say cultures. He had to gain entry into an alien world, and never leave it for a full year.

As we wrote in The Ragged Edge, "You understand another culture only after you live in it. You also understand your own culture only after you live in another. It's only by learning about another culture that you even grasp what culture is: that sum of thinking and living and believing that evolves in a place over generations. It pervades all. It preempts all. It can't be remade by bullets, barter or bribes.“

Click ahead for a very short excerpt from The Ragged Edge that I think will explain more about what we mean, and will give you a glimpse of what's to come. I hope you like it. ~ Ted Kemp, Co-author …>

Our late-night bull sessions with the Iraqis were friendly and relaxed. We ate sweets and drank chai . . . We talked, and we learned about each other. Arkan spoke of a sister who lived in Canada, and how he would be close to her when he lived in the United States. Zayn boasted about his sons and laughed at his tales of Saddam Hussein’s army.

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Many of the Iraqis’ beliefs shocked me. Someof the officers believed the 9/11 attacks never happened, and that the Bush administration made them up as a pretext for invading Iraqand Afghanistan. They cited Hollywood special effects as proof of America’s ability to fakethe attacks.

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Others believed Jewish elements had carried out the 9/11 attacks as a way to get the Americans to shield Israel from mujahideen. They said they respected the Marines, but they thought we were being duped by Zionists.

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Those beliefs were all the more troubling because many of the Fifth Battalion officers were drawn from the minority of Iraqis who actually believed that a free, democratic Iraq was possible. From our perspective, these were the enlightened ones.

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The Iraqis never got upset at me for asking pointed questions. They enjoyed debates. Sometimes we believed in diametrically opposite realities, but our conversations stayed civil. Animated at times, for sure, but civil.

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There were no forbidden topics. Today I look back on those nighttime chats and wish that Americans with opposing viewpoints were capable of the same open discourse.

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“So wait a minute, Zayn,” I said. “If, like you say, suicide is such a grave sin in Islam—”

“Yes, that’s right,” Zayn said, emphasizing his words with his hand and arms. “Because only God can decide when to end a life.”

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“OK, so if it’s the greatest sin, then how do you explain the suicide bombers on 9/11 and here in Iraq?”

“They are not true Muslims,” interjected Mohammed Najm, his jade eyes calm. “They are . . . The wordin English is—” and he switched to Arabic to ask Arkan for guidance.

“Apostates,” Arkan clarified.“They are apostates. They are false Muslims. Shiite, Sunni, I don’t care. They are all false and they willbe punished by God.”

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“Is it the same for the suicide bombers in Israel?” I asked.

“Ahhhhh,” they all seemed to say at once, before the young XO Ahmed Nuʾuman spoke up for everyone: “Palestine is different. That one is a special case.”

“What does that mean, ‘special case’?” I asked. Nobody had a good answer for that one.

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No matter, for now, I thought, we’ll continue tomorrow night. Or maybe I would stay up and talk further, one-on-one, with my warrior-messenger Abdel-ridha Gibrael, the Kurd with the perfect English. Whoever it is, I’ll keep them talking.

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The Ragged Edge is now available in bookstores from Chicago Review Press.