Bøger om Irak

Giants and Gods is an in-depth exploration of two fascinating and mysterious groups of beings that have captured the imagination of people for millennia: the Biblical Nephilim and the Apkallu deities of Mesopotamia. This book delves into the history and mythology surrounding these figures, and examines their significance within both biblical and Mesopotamian narratives.In the Bible, the Nephilim are described as the offspring of angels and human women, and are believed to have been a race of giants who lived before the Great Flood. The Apkallu, on the other hand, were a group of seven divine beings in Mesopotamian mythology who were said to have been sent to earth by the god Enki to bring civilization to humanity.Throughout the book, we explore the fascinating similarities and differences between these two groups, examining the religious and cultural context in which they emerged, and the ways in which they have been interpreted over time. We examine the biblical narrative of the Nephilim in detail, including their origins, their role in the Great Flood, and their continued presence in Jewish and Christian tradition.We also delve into the rich history and mythology surrounding the Apkallu deities, examining their importance within the broader context of Mesopotamian religion and culture. We explore the various texts and artifacts that reference the Apkallu, and examine the ways in which they have been depicted in art and literature.Overall, Giants and Gods offers a fascinating journey through the ancient world, exploring the intersection of religion, mythology, and history through the lens of two mysterious and intriguing groups of beings. Whether you are a scholar of ancient history and religion, or simply someone with a deep interest in these fascinating figures, this book is sure to provide a wealth of insight and knowledge.

During the Sumerian era, intelligent and talented individuals lived in the southern Iraq region. Scholars think that the earliest known human civilization emerged "suddenly," "unexpectedly," and "with remarkable abruptness" in the fertile plain watered by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers roughly 6,000 years ago.It was a civilization to which we owe nearly all the "Firsts" that we believe are necessary for a developed society, such as the wheel and methods of transportation on wheels; brick, which is used to build and continues to be used to build large structures; and furnaces and kilns, which are essential to industries ranging from baking to metallurgy.Sumer is credited with creating writing and record-keeping, astronomy, mathematics, towns and urban civilizations, kingships and laws, temples and priests, calendars, festivals, recipes, art, and artifacts. They were the first to record and explain historical events and tell stories about their gods by displaying exquisite sculptures and statuettes at holy sites.Over the last 150 years, several individuals have gained and evaluated scattered Mesopotamian archaeological objects to compile a comprehensive inventory. The names of the academics who made the voyage possible may be seen on many markers along the route that elevated ancient Sumer from obscurity to reverence. We will cover a few individuals who worked in diverse locations. In the last 150 years, archaeology and studying ancient languages have made this workable.

With her trademark engaging style, at once accessible and provocative, Cynthia Enloe draws on first-hand experiences of war in countries as diverse as Ukraine, Syria and Northern Ireland to show how women's wars are not men's wars, and why feminist campaigners remain active - against all odds - in the midst of armed violence.

"The Mesopotamian Marshes in southern Iraq, once the largest wetland system on the planet, have been inhabited for thousands of years by the Ma'dan, or Marsh Arabs, but they remain remote, isolated, and virtually unknown. In the early 1990s, the Saddam Hussein regime drained the Marshes and set out to destroy not only a critical ecosystem but a unique way of life as well. It stands as one of the greatest environmental and humanitarian disasters of the twentieth century. In the wake of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, local residents destroyed the earthen dams built to divert water from the wetlands and the Marshes were reflooded. Their future, however, is in peril. The Ghosts of Iraq's Marshes tells the history of the creation, destruction, and revitalization of the Marshes and their inhabitants against the backdrop of the dramatic events that have convulsed Iraq in the past fifty years. It follows the life of Jassim al-Asadi, an irrigation engineer who was jailed and tortured under Saddam Hussein and who subsequently dedicated his life to the reflooding and restoration of the Marshes. He eventually contributed to the Marshes being declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. Jassim is eminently relatable, and the stories of his life and other marsh dwellers are infused with pathos, tragedy, humor, and passion"--

The Iraq War's only living Medal of Honor recipient reveals the untold story of the remarkable brotherhood behind one of the war's legendary acts of valor In 2004, he stormed an enemy stronghold to save his platoon. Fourteen years later, his unit reunited and saved him. This is their story.?Acting on instinct to save the members of his platoon from an imminent threat, Staff Sergeant Bellavia ultimately cleared an entire enemy-filled house.? So reads the Medal of Honor citation describing one of the Iraq War's most celebrated acts of heroism. But the full story of the brotherhood at the heart of these events is untold?and far more remarkable.In 2004, David Bellavia's U.S. Army unit, an infantry bat­talion known as the Ramrods?2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division?fought and helped win the Battle of Fallujah, the bloodiest episode of the Iraq War. On November 10, 2004, Bellavia single-handedly cleared a forti­fied enemy position that had pinned down a squad from his platoon. Fourteen years later, Bellavia got a call from the pres­ident of the United States: he had been awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions in Fallujah and would receive America's highest award for bravery in combat during a ceremony at the White House.The news was not welcome. Bellavia had put the war behind him, created a quiet life for himself in rural western New York, and lost touch with most of his fellow Ramrods, who were once like brothers to him. The first time they gath­ered as a unit after the war was at Bellavia's medal ceremony, six days in Washington, D.C., that may have saved them all. As they revisited what they had seen and done in battle and revealed to one another their journeys back into civilian life, they discovered that the bonds had not been broken by time. A decoration for one became a healing event for all.This book?beginning in brutal war and ending with this momentous, transformative reunion?covers the journey of Bellavia's platoon through fifteen years. A quintessential and timeless American tale, it is the story of how forty battle-hardened soldiers became ordinary citizens again; what they did during that time, and how November 10, 2004, rattled within them; and how their reunion brought them home at last.

Colonel John Boyd, a maverick fighter pilot, revolutionized the American art of war but his research relied on accounts written by Wehrmacht veterans who fabricated historical evidence to cover up their participation in Nazi war crimes. The Blind Strategist separates fact from fantasy and exposes the myths of maneuver warfare through a detailed evidence-based investigation and is a must-read for anybody interested in American military history.

"Six months after 9/11, U.S. troops were on the ground in Afghanistan; less than a year later, America invaded Iraq. Brotherhood follows players on West Point's fiercely passionate rugby team as they became members of the first class to graduate in wartime since the days of Vietnam. Longtime journalist and Guardian editor Martin Pengelly's moving story covers a remarkable decades-long arc from 9/11 to present day. The narrative is guided by team captain, Matt Blind, as well as Bryan Phillips, an enormous football lineman who found a new life in the heart of the rugby scrum, and coach Mike Mahan, a legend of Army sports. Brotherhood offers intimate portraits of young men who go to war and what it meant to them to be bonded first by their time on the sports field. Of the rugby-playing teammates in West Point's class of 2002 who went to war, some came home and others didn't. Capt. Jimmy Gurbisz, one of the team's forwards, came from blue-collar New Jersey, achieved his dream by entering West Point, discovered a new sport there, fell in love with it, excelled, but suffered an injury which led directly to his tragic death in a blast of flame and steel on a dusty Baghdad street. Team players Zac Miller and Joey Emigh died away from war, but no less tragically. This book captures banding together on the rugby field with the same men whose lives they'll have to fiercely protect on the battlefield. Given extraordinary access, Pengelly has created a singular blend of brutal sports and even more brutal war that reads like Friday Nights Lights meets Band of Brothers"--

The religious minorities of Iraq suffered immense violence at the hands of ISIS and they are now trying to rebuild their lives. In their own words, this book tells their stories of resilience against oppression, creativity in the darkest moments, and hope amidst death. Covering the experiences of the Christians, Kakais, Yezidis, Sunni Muslims and Shabaks, among others, this is an in-depth investigation that reveals how the different communities narrate their beliefs and deal with life and recovery in the aftermath of ISIS.Existing literature on the religious minorities in Iraq treats them in isolation as if they do not interact. This is the first book to show that a strong network between them operates in the absence of a strong civil society and based on a common desire to coexist, reconstruct their society and build peace. Over three years, the author visited religious and archaeological sites and interviewed more than one hundred people between representatives of the religious communities, academics, activists, politicians, policy makers and refugees. Among them are victims and persecutors, men, women and children, all who have been overwhelmed by the tragic events of the last few years. The author shows that all these groups are animated by the same desire for a new, more tolerant society and that their treatment of each other is nurtured by their shared experience of persecution and oppression.

"Based on dramatic first-hand evidence, Deadly Betrayal uncovers why and how a cabal of Pentagon Advisors in the George W. Bush Administration created a fabricated justification to attack Iraq. The book provides a detailed insider account of how a Pentagon cabal strategized to manipulate intelligence, pressure the United Nations, force a Congressional authorization for the use of force through political threats, and scare the American people after 9/11 into supporting an attack on Iraq. Authored by a Pentagon insider and senior enlisted leader of nearly three decades standing, Command Chief Master Sergeant, Retired, Dennis Fritz worked directly for and advised some of the most senior General Officers in the Department of Defense. They included General Richard B. Myers, who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the height of the Iraq War. After military retirement, Fritz found himself inside Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon working for Douglas Feith, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and key architect of the case for war. He was detailed to the Pentagon as a contracted Research Fellow and Analyst on a special project to gather and review all Iraqi Pre-War Planning Documents for declassification. His access to thousands of personal handwritten notes, documents, and Pentagon's internal conversations, has allowed him to tell the real story of why America invaded Iraq."--

Imagine going to war for a year with no assurance that you would ever return. In Dr. Robert Elliott's Citizen Soldier: From the Land of Lincoln to Iraq and Back, readers learn what it is like to say goodbye to a wife and three children and then travel across Iraq by convoy and helicopters. You'll learn about the stressors, the dangers, and the risks taken and retaken.The author gives vivid accounts of:Walking the ancient ruins of BabylonTransporting detainees to Abu Ghraib PrisonMeeting with Ukrainian soldiers near the Iranian borderCalling in a medevac after a roadside bomb attackSustaining a mortar attackCitizen Soldier: From the Land of Lincoln to Iraq and Back is written from a soldier's perspective, inviting you to experience the emotional roller coaster that service members and their families voluntarily endure to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The Sumerian celestial object Nibiru signified the deity Marduk. The name is of Akkadian origin and means "crossroads" or "transition point." The vast majority of Babylonian literature relates it to Jupiter. In Tablet 5 of the Enuma Elish, the pole star at the time may have been Thuban or Kochab (Ursa Minor). The term "Nibiru" is taken from 5,000-year-old Sumerian literature and cuneiform tablets. The Sumerian civilization flourished in the fertile regions between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the southern area of modern-day Iraq. Its cuneiform symbol was often a cross or a variety of winged discs. Nibiru is often referred to as the "Planet of the Crossing."In the reconstruction of Tablet V of the Enuma Elish by Landsberger and Kinnier Wilson, the term "pole star" is rendered as "ni-bi-ri." It has several variations, such as "ni-bi-ru" and "ni-bi-a-na." Landsberger and Kinnier Wilson think it alludes to a permanent point in the skies since it is contrasted with the term itebbiru, which signifies "who previously crossed." Tablet V's referenced translation uses the phrase "polar star" despite substantial evidence that neberu was a planet in the late eras, either Jupiter or Mercury, according to the authors' remarks.According to the discoveries of ancient astronomers, Nibiru is an actual planet or brown dwarf inside our solar system. Established scientific organizations in astronomy and archaeology consider these hypotheses pseudoscience or fringe science. According to Sumerian cosmology, the twelfth planet in the solar system was Nibiru (which includes 10 planets, the Sun, and the Moon). The Earth, the asteroid belt, and the Moon would have originated due to a catastrophic collision between the planet and Tiamat, a planet between Mars and Jupiter. This was caused by a collision between one of Nibiru's host satellites and Tiamat, which created significant rifts in the Pacific Ocean's crust and left half a planet resembling modern Pangea (our present notion of all continents as one land mass). It was previously believed that such massive celestial bodies could not crash due to the magnetic field's strength. However, the discovery of the Orpheus Theory and the modeling of a collision between two Earth-sized objects have breathed fresh life into this theory.It was the home of the Sumerian mythological Anunnaki, an extraterrestrial species that resembled humans but was considerably more evolved. According to Ryan Moorhen, the Anunnaki persisted and eventually arrived on Earth. Furthermore, Ryan Moorhen said that the destruction of their atmosphere prompted their journey to Earth. They sought gold particles to include in their environment because of their reflectivity, which is still used by NASA plates and other items like astronaut helmet eye shields. According to Ryan Moorhen, they then combined their DNA with that of Homo erectus and genetically altered our species, working us as enslaved people in their gold mines at first.

Former RAF Tornado pilot Michael Napier chronicles the action-packed history of the Harrier GR 7/9, and its missions in West Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and Afghanistan over a 14-year period of ceaseless operations. The Harrier GR 7/9 was at the 'tip of the spear' for the RAF when it came to employing weapons against well-equipped standing armies and irregular forces in the 1990s and during the first decade of the new millennium. Assigned to the Harrier GR 7/9 Force, the aircraft undertook No Fly Zone patrols over northern Iraq, supported UN forces in the Balkans and embarked in Royal Navy carriers to bolster the RAF presence ashore in the Arabian Gulf. Harrier GR 7s also flew from HMS Illustrious over Sierra Leone in 2000 and were involved in the second Gulf War during early 2003 acting as Close Air Support for Coalition forces. Using first-hand accounts from his extensive Service contacts, supported by both official and personal photographs and 30 artwork profiles illustrating the wide range of colours worn and ordnance employed by the 'jump jet', Michael Napier provides a rare insider's look at the deployment of Harrier GR 7/9 up to its withdrawal from RAF service in 2010. Moreover, Napier also covers the numerous upgrades received by the aircraft over the years, from more powerful engines to the creation of the GR 9/9A variants in 2005.

The instant #1 New York Times bestseller, now in paperback! Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard reveal the startling, dramatic story of the global war against terrorists.As the World Trade Center buildings collapsed, the Pentagon burned, and a small group of passengers fought desperately to stop a third plane from completing its deadly flight plan, America went on war footing. Killing The Killers narrates America's intense global war against extremists who planned and executed not only the 9/11 attacks, but hundreds of others in America and around the world, and who eventually destroyed entire nations in their relentless quest for power.Killing The Killers moves from Afghanistan to Iraq, Iran to Yemen, Syria, and Libya, and elsewhere, as the United States fought Al Qaeda, ISIS, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, as well as individually targeting the most notorious leaders of these groups. With fresh detail and deeply-sourced information, O'Reilly and Dugard create an unstoppable account of the most important war of our era.Killing The Killers is the most thrilling and suspenseful book in the #1 bestselling series of popular history books (over 18 million sold) in the world.