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Because Each Life Is Precious: Why an Iraqi Man Came to Risk Everything for Private Jessica Lynch

Because Each Life Is Precious: Why an Iraqi Man Came to Risk Everything for Private Jessica Lynch

List Price: $23.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Stranger Than Fiction
Review: Being a Shiite Moslem, Mr. Mohammed Odeh Al-Rehaief has been a first-hand witness to savagery throughout his life. In his home city of Nasiriya, he had been an attorney, and was a wealthy man whose extended family owned properties and businesses. Yet, this did not shield him from the corruption and brutality of Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Who would ever have imagined that an Iraqi citizen would knowingly risk losing everything, including his own life and the lives of his family, in order to save one soldier; a soldier whose country was then engaged in bombing his city to pieces. Here, however, we are forced to believe it, simply because we know that it is true.

It has been pointed out that Mr. Al-Rehaief is given but brief mention in her own book, but the fact is that Pfc Jessica Lynch does express that she will be forever grateful to him. That she does not recall the events as he describes them should come as no surprise, since she was barely conscious of anything except pain during her captivity. By Pfc Lynch's own admission, it is unlikely that she would be alive today if it had not been for the efforts of this Iraqi civilian, and his success in reaching the US Marines, stationed outside the city as they continued their attack.

Maybe it is through his family that we can glean some insight into the character of Mr. Al-Rehaief and where his strong moral values originate: As the book ends, the rest of his family, headed by his father, the son of a sheikh, are waiting in international limbo, not knowing what will happen to them next. They have lost everything. Yet I detect no sentiment of regret, complaint or accusation in their descriptions of the hardships caused by the loss of their entire way of life. Such unselfishness seems unfathomable, but again we are forced to believe it, simply because it is true.
Who among us...?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Hero Of Our Time!
Review: George Bush should buy up copies of this book by the dozens and and distribute them as he goes around the country raising money for his re-election campaign. Mohammed al-Rehaief in 212 pages does more to make the case that the U. S. should have invaded Iraq than all the rhetoric that continues to pour out of Washington. Simply put, Mr. al-Rehaief is a hero if risking your life and the lives of your family to save a total stranger defines a hero.

In addition to giving us the details of Mr. al-Rehaief's part in saving Jessica Lynch, a story that has all in's and out's of any first-rate suspense novel, roughly a third of the book is about the author's life before Jessica Lynch--his childhood, adolescence, marriage, his hatred of the Saddam Hussein dictatorship. "In adolescence I grew more subversive. I'd make fun of Saddam's crooked mouth, mimicking him before my friends. Or we'd find an empty classroom at recess, load spitballs onto rubber bands, and fire away at the president's picture." Always known as a "long tongue," the author was always getting both himself and his family in trouble. A thirty-three-year-old Shiite from Nasiriya, Mr. al-Rehaief is an expert in kung fu, a skill that saved his life on more than one occasion. Though trained a a lawyer he no longer practiced as he says in a country where there is no law. Although from an affluent family, the author learned early on from his beloved father that "there is no shame in being poor" and "each life is precious." Mr. al-Rehaief is a very fluent storyteller with a good sense of humor. While a Muslim, he is not a fanatical fundamentalist and admits that he has never been able to fast an entire month for Ramadan. In a word, he's someone you'd want to invite to a dinner party.

Mr. al-Rehaief, now in the United States with his wife and his daughter, whose hospitalization in Iraq is just one of the many horric experiences he describes, says that when he made the decision to live in the U. S., he felt as if he were "going home." And finally in this decent and good man's own words: "I read everything I can about Jessica's progress. When the hospital released her to her home in West Virginia, I felt like we had won all over again. More than anything, I wish her a full and happy life. . . Finally, I regret nothing. I would risk it all again to help her, without thinking twice."

Welcome home, Mr. al-Hehaief.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Inspiring
Review: I was drawn to this book by the cover and that's often such a misleading reason to buy a book but I did anyway - and was captivated by this story. The story of Mohammed's life in Iraq before Sadam Hussein was driven from power gives us insight into just how oppressive the Baathist regime was to the people of Iraq. Mohammed survives an incredible ordeal during the peak of U.S. military action in Iraq to lead American soldiers to the hospital where Jessica Lynch was being held. He loses one eye to shrapnel from a rocket and still has no regrets.

The humble and precise title answers the question "why would this Iraqi man named Mohammed risk his life and his family's life for someone he didn't even know"? Why risk capture and certain death by the Fedayeen who watched his suspicious activity so carefully?

I so loved this story because human to human there is more to bind us than separate us. Where few Islamic extremists have given us fear of muslims, this wonderful story offers us the real insight into the core teachings of the Koran....... each life is precious.

Read this and savor it for it's humanity at it's worst and best all woven into one series of truly heroic events.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the most interesting books I have read
Review: Mohammed Odeh al-Rahaief has written a riveting story about his life in Iraq and his dangerous adventures in struggling to help save Jessica's life. It was eye opening to see what life in Iraq was like, and I love the way the book was written in a very interesting manner. I couldn't put the book down and I would recommend it to everyone. It was so inspirational to read about someone who acted so selflessly by putting his own life and that of his family's on the line to help another human being who was not even from his country. He lost the vision in one eye during the perilous adventure to try to help Jessica. I hope his life will be richly blessed and those who come in contact with him and his family will be caring, generous, and supportive. I am proud to have Mohammed and his family in America.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Engaging read
Review: So many reviews seem to center around whether the events were true or not or with they agree with Lynch's account. (Their paths only cross for a matter of minutes in the book so I don't know how much there is to dispute. Only a 3rd party witness could confirm.) I can say about the book that...
- It was hard to put down.
- It was more about the author's life than her rescue. I enjoyed this intimate look at an Iraqi's family life as much as the rescue.
- It seemed at times too fantastic to be true but that may be simply because my everyday life is a cozy one in America compared to the author's in Iraq.
- Some of the atrocities are hard to read about. I don't think this would be appropriate reading for young children.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: going against the flow in Iraq
Review: This book starts off with the author describing the beginning of the war and the ambush of the 507th Maintenance Company. Then it goes back in time to how the author Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief grew up under the rule of Saddam Hussein, before returning to current events and what the author did to help rescue a frightened, brutalized young female American soldier from almost certain death.
The world that Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief grew up in depicts a country with all of the worst aspects of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. Yet, he maintained his humanity while earning a strong distaste for the Baath Party and its leaders who terrorized so many people around them.
While the book does provide a vivid depiction of many events within the the ambush of the 507th Maintenance Company; the heavy gunfire, exploding vehicles, American soldiers being taken prisoner and being shot and even a young female soldier being removed from a disabled vehicle and savagely beaten by Iraqi soldiers, it does not tell the reader what happened to that brutalized female soldier, later revealed to be PFC Jessica Lynch. Nothing is said about what happened to her in the hours when she was taken to a nearby house and then a small military hospital before finally ending up at Saddam Hospital. Mohammed's next encounter with Jessica is when he sees her being brutally slapped in the face by a large Iraqi interrogator in spite of her being obviously badly injured.
Still Mohammed's humanity came to the forefront after seeing Jessica Lynch and her circumstances. He first was able to convince the doctors to postpone a leg amputation that would have likely taken Jessica's life. Mohammed then risked his life and the life of his family to get information to US forces to facilitate a daring but successful rescue operation that saved Jessica Lynch's life. His account of the events is far more credible than that of the medical staff at Saddam Hospital who were likely fully aware of the brutal atrocities committed against Jessica and other US POW's.
The future of Islam is not with the screaming fanatics who cry for death, jihad and martyrdom. It instead lies with people like Mohammed Odeh al-Reheif whose love, compassion and self-sacrifice truly represent God's will.


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