The Fable of Megastan

This story was written in 2006 when I was working at a Defense Department think tank in the belly of the Bush Beltway. I was amazed by how little the people around me knew about the Middle East, even the so-called 'experts.' I had just come back from a year and a half working as a journalist in the Middle East, and the general understanding in Washington had very little to do with the reality I had experienced.

The debate about the Iraq War was heating up at this time, and most people, it seemed, were arguing from a place of deep ignorance. I wrote this story to try to get across to general American audiences what it would really be like to be an Iraqi. The Fable of Megastan is a thoroughly-researched retelling of the past 26 years of U.S.-Iraqi relations (1980-2006), with the roles of the two countries reversed.

In other words, in this narrative, America plays the role of Iraq, Megastan plays the part of America, Mexico is Iran, Cuba is Afghanistan, President Maddox Houston is Saddam Hussein, Malik Boun is George W. Bush, and so on. You can guess for yourself who Vice Premier Dik Chen Yi represents.

It's an attempt to explain and humanize what Iraqis have experienced during the past quarter-century. Some parallels will be painfully obvious while others represent events unknown or misunderstood by most Americans (including myself before I began this research).

No analogy is perfect, and many herein are deeply flawed. They should be seen as nothing more or less than guideposts to steer us through an unfamiliar landscape: that of being a nation suffering under a brutal dictatorship, two devastating wars, and debilitating sanctions followed by a foreign invasion and occupation.

After reading it, I hope you will have a slightly more human understanding of the issues surrounding this war.