How a Caliphate EndsNovember/December 2019 171So his account o ́ Iraqis, both soldiers
and civilians, feels fresh, and it presents
an occasion to examine the broader
questions posed by the con¥ict’s recent
events: What works and what doesn’t,
after 16 years o¡ attempts by foreigners
and locals to pacify Iraq? What happens
on the ground as the United States
outsources the foot soldiering o¡ its
wars? Is really defeated, or are years
o¡ violence in the name o ́ ̄ghting
terrorism likely to continue unrolling
new, expanding chapters o¡ con¥ict with
that group and others?FROM WASHINGTON TO BAGHDAD
As he follows one mostly Muslim army
into a war against another, Verini doesn’t
bother with tired questions about Islam
and whether there is something uniquely
pathological about Arabs or Muslims.marriage. The Iraqi troops and civilians
Verini befriends and pro ̄les have lived
lives permeated by the war far more
deeply than are those o¡ Americans who
have spent entire military careers ̄ghting
it. Their generosity in trying to forge
mutual understanding with Verini, “a
person from the place that had made their
lives a hell,” was, he writes, “humanity
itself.” At ̄rst glance, his book reads like
any narrative o° life with the troops, full
o¡ worm’s-eye details on war’s chaos and
boredom and absurdity, with vivid portraits
o¡ soldiers and their black humor. But
these are Iraqi troops, and Verini inter-
sperses the scenes with historical research
from the earliest annals o¡ war—some
visible in Mosul’s own archaeological
past—to records o¡ more recent episodes
that explain why many citizens oered
at least passive support to .The boys are back in town: Iraqi security forces liberating the village of Khalidiya, October 2016THAIER
AL½SUDANI
/ REUTERS