They Dragged Them through the Streets: A Novel

Acknowledgments

195 Acknowledgments For background on and analysis of the US war in Iraq, and for reporting many of the incidents that appear in this novel, I am indebted to the following works (in alphabetical order): Iraq Veterans Against the War and Aaron Glantz, Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations, foreword by Anthony Swofford (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2008). Dahr Jamail, Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, foreword by Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2007). Nir Rosen, The Triumph of the Martyrs: A Reporter’s Journey into Occupied Iraq (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2008; first edition published as In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq by Free Press, 2006). Anthony Shadid, Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadows of America’s War (New York: Henry Holt, 2005; New York: Picador, 2006). Müge Gürsoy Sökmen, ed., World Tribunal on Iraq: Making the Case Against War, forewords by Arundhati Roy and Richard Falk (Northampton, 196 MA: Olive Branch Press, 2008). Elise Tripp, ed., Surviving Iraq: Soldiers’ Stories (Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press, 2007). The following articles deserve special mention: Mark Danner , “US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites,” New York Review of Books 56.6 (9 April 2009). Erica Goode, “After Combat, Victims of an Inner War,” New York Times (2 August 2009). Ann Jones, “Iraq’s Invisible Refugees,” Nation (9 March 2009). Joshua Kors, “How the VA Abandons Our Vets,” Nation (15 September 2008). Joshua Kors, “Disposable Soldiers,” Nation (26 April 2010). Nir Rosen, “An Ugly Truth: What Changed in Iraq,” Boston Review (November/December 2009). Marc Santora, “Pullout from Iraq Faces Daunting Challenges,” New York Times (9 October 2009). Timothy Williams and Suadad al-Salhy, “Fate of Iraqis Gone Missing Haunts Those Left Behind,” New York Times (25 May 2009). Edward Wong, “Iraq’s Curse: A Thirst for Final, Crushing Victory,” New York Times (3 June 2007). Democracy Now! and Al-Jazeera English provided years of essential ongoing coverage of the war. I apologize if I have neglected to credit a source that any passage of the novel relies upon. Anthony Shadid’s work was particularly vital. Like thousands of others I will miss his writing and mourned his untimely death in February 2012. The title of the article that serves as prologue to the novel is borrowed from Douglas Robinson’s “Townhouse Razed by Blast and Fire; Man’s Body Found,” New York Times (7 March 1970). • 197 Thank you to the board members of FC2, for all their work, and to Dan Waterman and the University of Alabama Press. Grateful acknowledgment is made to Copper Nickel, Berfrois, and the Massachusetts Review, where excerpts of this novel appeared . I am deeply grateful to Zach Savich, Pam Thompson, Stanley Crawford, Etel Adnan, Jenn Mar, David Bartone, Jeff Downey, Jensen Beach, Kyle Flak, Jen Kleinman, and Karen Emmerich. Thank you to my family—Sydney, Terry, Trevor, Brandy, Berit—and to Michael Page. Special thanks are owed to Andy Stallings. This novel could not have existed without Noy Holland. Thank you. ...