Jürgen Todenhöfer’s book sheds light on the other side of the story, reporting on how Iraqi people talk about the war when there are no heavily armed GIs in the vicinity, and when neither helicopters nor Humvees have been “cleansing” and securing the area for hours beforehand for politicians and press convoys. Why Do You Kill? gives a voice to those whom Pentagon press officers never take their visitor delegations to see—members of the Iraqi resistance. The book attempts to explain why this resistance is not only fighting against American troops, but also against Al Qaeda terrorists and the foreign-backed private militias of Iraqi politicians. It clarifies the fundamental differences between resistance fighters and terrorists.

The author gives a voice to those who are truly fighting for justice and freedom. And just as in Algeria in the 1960s and in Afghanistan in the 1980s, these were and are—in Iraq in the year 2009—not the occupying troops, but the resistance fighters.

Jürgen Todenhöfer has been an executive at a major European media group for more than twenty years. Before that he was a member of the German parliament for eighteen years and the spokesman on development and arms control. He has written two bestsellers about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. With the proceeds, he established a children’s home in Afghanistan and is building a children’s clinic in Congo. With the royalties from Why Do You Kill?, Todenhöfer will finance medical aid for Iraqi refugee children and an Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation project in the Middle East.