James Verini > Quotes

“Tigris. A young soldier said, ‘I want to tell you a story.’ When he was ten years old, he said, the Americans invaded. Between his school and his home in Baghdad sprang up an American checkpoint. At first he was scared of them. But then he found they were friendly. Every day after classes he’d go there and spend two hours with the soldiers. They fed him, played with him, showed him pictures of their children. He taught them Arabic words, they taught him English words. He loved them. They loved him. Even now, he thought of them every day. I looked at him expectantly. ‘That’s all,’ he said. ‘That’s my story.’

I asked whether he was glad America had come all those years ago. The stupidity of the question occurred to me only as it left my mouth.

‘No,’ he said, smiling.”
― James Verini, They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate

“You should write something that makes Trump kick the Saudis’ ass,’ Rasul said. ‘The Arabs are all with Daesh. We think Trump is going to be better than Obama. Obama supports Daesh.’ Almost every Iraqi soldier I’d met claimed to be eagerly awaiting the tenure of the newly elected Donald Trump. Some hoped he would attack the Islamic State with more obvious brutality than Barack Obama had, others that he would go after Iran, others Saudi Arabia. (Trump had pledged to do all three.) Most of all, though, they seemed to look forward to an American president who fit the mold of what they thought an American president ought to be. As far as I could tell, this meant a belligerent and nostalgic white man. ‘Obama doesn’t help us,’ Ali said. ‘He doesn’t like us. We were waiting for Obama to do something, but he did nothing.”
― James Verini, They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate