content: An excellent non-strident expression of perspective from a pair of creative and perceptive non-western eyes. In fact, in light of consummate arrogance from the Western world and its perspective on the "lesser peoples," we need more, more, more of this kind of writing: tells it like it is but is not so blindly anti-western that it turns people off. The one issue I have with the book--and I say this from having lived in the Arab World--Salam is NOT your "ordinary" Iraqi. While there are certainly more like him than western minds will accept, he does not yet represent the "average" Iraqi.