Download or read book Meditations from Iraq written by Lance Kittleson and published by CSS Publishing. This book was released on 2005 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I experienced the power of God's grace in two ways as I have read these e-mails: I heard the story of faith of an ordinary parish pastor who served God in a rather extraordinary setting, and I experienced the power of God to make the ordinary precious. These letters are filled with simple moments of serving coffee and serving God, baptism by bottled water and denominational tensions melting under a desert sun. Lance Kittleson shares with all of us a small piece of God's kingdom in a far-off land. (from the Preface) Elaine Siemsen Assistant Professor of Religion St. Olaf College In January 2003, Lance Kittleson's army reserve unit was deployed to Kuwait and Iraq. For the next 14 months, his ministry was transformed ? instead of pastoring an Iowa congregation, he now served under harsh and sometimes dangerous conditions as a chaplain for a support unit on the edge of war. Yet even in this chaotic and challenging environment, his trained pastor's eye finds the presence of God in moments both mundane and exhilarating. In this collection of e-mails sent to family and friends during his time in the Middle East, Kittleson shares insightful, poignant, and humorous meditations on faith and life. You'll get a firsthand glimpse of military life, as well as the remarkable ways of the spirit (both divine and human) at work. When the camp's altar suddenly disappears, you'll read about how Kittleson comes to understand that the crude replacement altar hastily assembled from discarded shipping crates is a better symbol of Jesus than any fancy altar in an ornate sanctuary. You'll also see how the sight of a superior officer offering a cup of coffee draws quizzical responses from servicemen accustomed to a rank-conscious army. Whether you are interested in learning more about what some of our men and women in uniform are experiencing in Iraq, want thoughtful sermon illustrations, or just desire inspirational reading that highlights God's presence even in the worst of life, Meditations >From Iraq is a fascinating volume for everyone. Some of the illuminating chapters include: * A Baptism In The Desert * The Spirit's Honeywagon * The Rivers Of Babylon * Tikrit And Perspective (Or Dodging Bat Guano In The Desert) * Saint SGT Murphy * Eli's Christmas Tree (Or Someone In Iowa Loves You) * The Last Convoy * SRP Blues Lance Kittleson has been an ELCA pastor since 1981. He is currently the pastor of Deer Creek Lutheran Church in Carpenter, Iowa, and St. Peter Lutheran Church in Toeterville, Iowa. Kittleson previously served parishes in Iowa and Oregon, and has been a missionary in Senegal. Kittleson's military service has included 17 years as a chaplain in the Army Reserve and 10 years as an infantry officer. He is a graduate of North Carolina State University and Luther Seminary. click here for sample

Download or read book A Captain s Journal written by Eric Charles and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2011 with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A Captain's Journal is a personal account of events from Balad Air Force Base Hospital in Iraq during a six month period from 2006 - 2007. The stories are told from the personal perspective of Eric Charles, an Anesthesiologist. Eric recounts his patient encounters that range from pleasant to gut-wrenching and from laughable to tear-jerking. The descriptions of the events are occasionally graphic, but strike a realistic chord. Eric also weaves into the narrative many personal and philosophicalohical interactions from the every day events of living in the midst of the Iraq War"--Back cover.

Download or read book Baghdad Burning written by Riverbend and published by The Feminist Press at CUNY. This book was released on 2005-04-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the fall of Bagdad, women’s voices have been largely erased, but four months after Saddam Hussein’s statue fell, a 24 year-old woman from Baghdad began blogging. In 2003, a twenty-four-year-old woman from Baghdad began blogging about life in the city under the pseudonym Riverbend. Her passion, honesty, and wry idiomatic English made her work a vital contribution to our understanding of post-war Iraq—and won her a large following. Baghdad Burning is a quotidian chronicle of Riverbend’s life with her family between April 2003 and September of 2004. She describes rolling blackouts, intermittent water access, daily explosions, gas shortages and travel restrictions. She also expresses a strong stance against the interim government, the Bush administration, and Islamic fundamentalists like Al Sadr and his followers. Her book “offers quick takes on events as they occur, from a perspective too often overlooked, ignored or suppressed” (Publishers Weekly). “Riverbend is bright and opinionated, true, but like all voices of dissent worth remembering, she provides an urgent reminder that, whichever governments we struggle under, we are all the same.” —Booklist “Feisty and learned: first-rate reading for any American who suspects that Fox News may not be telling the whole story.” —Kirkus

Download or read book What We Owe Iraq written by Noah Feldman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-10 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do we owe Iraq? America is up to its neck in nation building--but the public debate, focused on getting the troops home, devotes little attention to why we are building a new Iraqi nation, what success would look like, or what principles should guide us. What We Owe Iraq sets out to shift the terms of the debate, acknowledging that we are nation building to protect ourselves while demanding that we put the interests of the people being governed--whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, or elsewhere--ahead of our own when we exercise power over them. Noah Feldman argues that to prevent nation building from turning into a paternalistic, colonialist charade, we urgently need a new, humbler approach. Nation builders should focus on providing security, without arrogantly claiming any special expertise in how successful nation-states should be made. Drawing on his personal experiences in Iraq as a constitutional adviser, Feldman offers enduring insights into the power dynamics between the American occupiers and the Iraqis, and tackles issues such as Iraqi elections, the prospect of successful democratization, and the way home. Elections do not end the occupier's responsibility. Unless asked to leave, we must resist the temptation of a military pullout before a legitimately elected government can maintain order and govern effectively. But elections that create a legitimate democracy are also the only way a nation builder can put itself out of business and--eventually--send its troops home. Feldman's new afterword brings the Iraq story up-to-date since the book's original publication in 2004, and asks whether the United States has acted ethically in pushing the political process in Iraq while failing to control the security situation; it also revisits the question of when, and how, to withdraw.

Download or read book Where War Ends written by Tom Voss and published by New World Library. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Iraq War veteran's riveting journey from suicidal despair to hope After serving in a scout-sniper platoon in Mosul, Tom Voss came home carrying invisible wounds of war — the memory of doing or witnessing things that went against his fundamental beliefs. This was not a physical injury that could heal with medication and time but a "moral injury" — a wound to the soul that eventually urged him toward suicide. Desperate for relief from the pain and guilt that haunted him, Voss embarked on a 2,700-mile journey across America, walking from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to the Pacific Ocean with a fellow veteran. Readers walk with these men as they meet other veterans, Native American healers, and spiritual teachers who appear in the most unexpected forms. At the end of their trek, Voss realizes he is really just beginning his healing. He pursues meditation training and discovers sacred breathing techniques that shatter his understanding of war and himself, and move him from despair to hope. Voss's story will give inspiration to veterans, their friends and family, and survivors of all kinds.

Download or read book Walking the Tiger s Path written by Paul M. Kendel and published by Tendril Press. This book was released on 2011-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul M. Kendel (SSG Ret.) deployed with his National Guard unit to Iraq, hoping to use his knowledge of that land to bridge the gap between American soldiers and Iraqi civilians. However, the realities of war crushed his idealism when his buddies began dying at the hands of the enemy six weeks after their arrival. Eventually, his ongoing concern for the Iraqi people alienated some of his comrades, and he felt the sting of growing conflict within himself. Turning to the books on Buddhist teachings he had brought with him, he found solace in the written words, but he longed for more. On a whim, he emailed Shambhala International and requested assistance. An unexpected response and ongoing support from Buddhist teacher and meditation instructor Margot Neuman helped him to retain a sane and humble humanity in a situation that often plummeted into lethal insanity. This book addresses the horrors of war from an extraordinary human perspective.

Download or read book My Golden Nuggets written by Ronnie C. King and published by . This book was released on 2012-12-01 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My Golden Nuggets is a passionate compilation of daily meditations written by a Navy Chaplain while serving in Iraq and other places. Each meditation is written with passion, concern and care as he ministers to military, civilians, and contractors serving in war as well as those back home supporting their loved one. As you read each thought and meditation I am sure that you will be blessed and touched by each one. For years Chaplain Ronnie King has served the men and women of America's Armed Forces in harm's way. The meditations he shared with them have helped many through the most challenging times; even through life-and-death situations. Today you can read many of Captain King's passionate devotions, in his book entitled, "My Golden Nuggets." We invite you to read it, and pray that it helps you find richness through trying times, and joy at all times.

Download or read book Familiar Futures written by Sara Pursley and published by Stanford Studies in Middle Eas. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction : Iraqi futures and the age of development -- Sovereignty, violence, and the dual mandate -- Determining a self -- The gendering of school time -- Generational time and the marriage crisis -- The family farm and the peculiar futurist perspective of development -- Revolutionary time and wasted time -- Law and the post-revolutionary self -- Epilogue : postcolonial heterotemporalities

Download or read book Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics written by Dan Harris and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2017-12-26 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF 10% HAPPIER Too busy to meditate? Can’t turn off your brain? Curious about mindfulness but more comfortable in the gym? This book is for you. You’ll also get access to guided audio meditations on the 10% Happier app, to jumpstart your practice from day one. ABC News anchor Dan Harris used to think that meditation was for people who collect crystals, play Ultimate Frisbee, and use the word “namaste” without irony. After he had a panic attack on live television, he went on a strange and circuitous journey that ultimately led him to become one of meditation’s most vocal public proponents. Harris found that meditation made him more focused and less yanked around by his emotions. According to his wife, it also made him less annoying. Science suggests that the practice can lower your blood pressure, mitigate depression and anxiety, and literally rewire key parts of the brain. So what’s holding you back? In Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, Harris and Jeff Warren, a masterful teacher and “Meditation MacGyver,” embark on a gonzo cross-country quest to tackle the myths, misconceptions, and self-deceptions that keep people from meditating. It is filled with game-changing and deeply practical meditation instructions—all of which are also available (for free) on the 10% Happier app. This book is a trip worth taking. Praise for Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics “If you’re intrigued by meditation but don’t know how to begin—or you’ve benefited from meditation in the past but need help to get started again—Dan Harris has written the book for you. Well researched, practical, and crammed with expert advice, it’s also an irreverent, hilarious page-turner.”—Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project “The ABC News anchor, a ‘defender of worrying’ who once had an anxiety attack on air, offers a hilarious and stirring account of his two-steps-forward-one-step-back campaign to sort ‘useless rumination’ from ‘constructive anguish’ via mindfulness, along with invaluable suggestions for following in his footsteps.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

Download or read book Geopolitics and the Event written by Alan Ingram and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-08-19 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An original exploration of the 2003 Iraq war and geopolitics more broadly through the prism of art. Offers a reappraisal of one of the most contentious and consequential events of the early twenty-first century Advances an original perspective on Britain’s role in the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq Maps out new ways of thinking about geopolitical events through art Examines the work of artists, curators and activists in light of Britain’s role as a colonial power in Iraq and the importance of oil Reflects on the significance, limits and dilemmas of art as a form of critical intervention Questions the implications of art in colonialism and modernity

Download or read book Poppies of Iraq written by Brigitte Findakly and published by Drawn & Quarterly. This book was released on 2021-04-22 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A personal account of an Iraqi childhood Poppies of Iraq is Brigitte Findakly’s nuanced tender chronicle of her relationship with her homeland Iraq, co-written and drawn by her husband, the acclaimed cartoonist Lewis Trondheim. In spare and elegant detail, they share memories of her middle class childhood touching on cultural practices, the education system, Saddam Hussein’s state control, and her family’s history as Orthodox Christians in the arab world. Poppies of Iraq is intimate and wide-ranging; the story of how one can become separated from one’s homeland and still feel intimately connected yet ultimately estranged. Signs of an oppressive regime permeate a seemingly normal life: magazines arrive edited by customs; the color red is banned after the execution of General Kassim; Baathist militiamen are publicly hanged and school kids are bussed past them to bear witness. As conditions in Mosul worsen over her childhood, Brigitte’s father is always hopeful that life in Iraq will return to being secular and prosperous. The family eventually feels compelled to move to Paris, however, where Brigitte finds herself not quite belonging to either culture. Trondheim brings to life Findakly’s memories to create a poignant family portrait that covers loss, tragedy, love, and the loneliness of exile. Poppies of Iraq has been translated from the French by Helge Dascher. Dascher has been translating graphic novels from French and German to English for over twenty years. A contributor to Drawn & Quarterly since the early days, her translations include acclaimed titles such as the Aya series by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie, Hostage by Guy Delisle, and Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët. With a background in art history and history, she also translates books and exhibitions for museums in North America and Europe. She lives in Montreal.

Download or read book A War Against Truth written by Paul William Roberts and published by Raincoast Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I write in a state of raging anger and shame about what I saw. A fraud was perpetrated on the entire world. A weak and defenseless nation was invaded and occupied by the greatest superpower in history on a pretext that is a transparent deception, a lie. This should bother someone. My friend Bassim and his whole family were killed. This bothers me."A classical scholar and one of the few journalists to have interviewed Saddam Hussein, Canadian reporter Paul William Roberts knows Iraq better than most. And he was in Baghdad when the bombs started falling. This is his expose of the politics behind the recent war-and the brutal reality on the ground. It follows The Demonic Comedy, which the Globe and Mail called "funny, beguiling, poignant, powerful and very good indeed, [and] probably also has the unusual bonus feature of being true."

Download or read book The Unraveling written by Emma Sky and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Emma Sky volunteered to help rebuild Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, she had little idea what she was getting in to. Her assignment was only supposed to last three months. She went on to serve there longer than any other senior military or diplomatic figure, giving her an unrivaled perspective of the entire conflict. As the representative of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Kirkuk in 2003 and then the political advisor to US General Odierno from 2007-2010, Sky was valued for her knowledge of the region and her outspoken voice. She became a tireless witness to American efforts to transform a country traumatized by decades of war, sanctions, and brutal dictatorship; to insurgencies and civil war; to the planning and implementation of the surge and the subsequent drawdown of US troops; to the corrupt political elites who used sectarianism to mobilize support; and to the takeover of a third of the country by the Islamic State. With sharp detail and tremendous empathy, Sky provides unique insights into the US military as well as the complexities, diversity, and evolution of Iraqi society. The Unraveling is an intimate insider's portrait of how and why the Iraq adventure failed and contains a unique analysis of the course of the war. Highlighting how nothing that happened in Iraq after 2003 was inevitable, Sky exposes the failures of the policies of both Republicans and Democrats, and the lessons that must be learned about the limitations of power.

Download or read book Meditations After Holy Communion written by Edward Looney and published by Sophia Institute Press. This book was released on 2021-01-21 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In what promises to become a spiritual classic, Fr. Edward Looney's Meditations after Holy Communion guides your prayers during those intimate moments with the Lord following Holy Communion, elevating your soul and mind and leading you into a deeper relationship with Christ. Inspired by the work of Fr. Daniel Lord, S.J., Fr. Looney offers here a method of prayer that is sure to renew within you the practice of fruitful Eucharistic prayer. He will guide you through each Sunday of the year with meditations tied to the liturgical seasons, ensuring that you are aligned not only with Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time, but also with the universal Church, now and throughout the ages. Each meditation introduces you to a topic for reflection and provides points to ponder and a short prayer. These guided meditations are especially helpful in those moments when you return to your pew, recollect after

Download or read book Meditations of a Militant Moderate written by Peter H. Schuck and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2006 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vital center. Radical middle. Amid the red state/blue state divide, is there now space for an iconoclastic militant moderate? In this unusual and remarkably readable collection of short essays on a wide variety of hot-button public issues--race, affirmative action, surrogate motherhood, diversity, immigration, compensation of 9/11 victims, exclusion of gays from the Boy Scouts and the military, the 2004 election, the rule of law in developing countries, the invasion of Iraq, and many more--Yale Law School professor Peter H. Schuck reveals the distinctive sensibility and policy orientation of a militant moderate: pragmatic, reformist, nonideological, empirically minded, and skeptical of many liberal and conservative pieties.

Download or read book Divine Flashes written by Fakhr al-Dīn Ibrāhīm ʻIrāqī and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 1982 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the foremost expositors of Sufi teachings, Fakhruddin Iraqi (1213-1289) was one of the greatest of Persian poets. His masterpiece, Divine Flashes, is a classic expression of Sufi love mysticism.

Download or read book Iraq 100 written by Hassan Blasim and published by Tordotcom. This book was released on 2017-09-12 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of NPR's Best Books of 2017! A groundbreaking anthology of science fiction from Iraq that will challenge your perception of what it means to be “The Other” “History is a hostage, but it will bite through the gag you tie around its mouth, bite through and still be heard.”—Operation Daniel In a calm and serene world, one has the luxury of imagining what the future might look like. Now try to imagine that future when your way of life has been devastated by forces beyond your control. Iraq + 100 poses a question to Iraqi writers (those who still live in that nation, and those who have joined the worldwide diaspora): What might your home country look like in the year 2103, a century after a disastrous foreign invasion? Using science fiction, allegory, and magical realism to challenge the perception of what it means to be “The Other”, this groundbreaking anthology edited by Hassan Blasim contains stories that are heartbreakingly surreal, and yet utterly recognizable to the human experience. Though born out of exhaustion, fear, and despair, these stories are also fueled by themes of love, family, and endurance, and woven through with a delicate thread of hope for the future. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.