PRESS RELEASE: "Once Upon a Time in Iraq"

=====================FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE===================
March 27, 2008For more information, contact:Basil Balian, phone: 513-236-0260E-mail: b4sight@current.net
New Book Details Life in a once Peaceful and Progressive Iraq

CINCINNATI—Imagine an Iraq where people of different religions and ethnicity lived in harmony and peace, where children could grow up and be educated, where businesses both large and small thrived, and the basic necessities of life were within nearly everyone’s reach. Imagine a progressing, economically vibrant Iraq on its way to becoming a vital and functioning developed country. A new book, "Once Upon a Time in Iraq", by Basil Balian, offers such a view.Balian, an ex-Iraqi and resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, memorializes his growing-up years in Iraq in this book. "Once Upon a Time in Iraq" provides American readers with a glimpse of a pre-Saddam Hussein Iraq in which ordinary life was possible. Described by one early reviewer as "informative, humorous, insightful and humanizing of the Iraqis," _Once Upon a Time in Iraq_ provides the reader with a vision of Iraq they’ve never seen before, a place of growth and progress but also traditions and customs, a place of human comedy as well as tragedy.>From his early childhood spent among the Kurds in Khanaqin, near the Iranian border, as the son of a British Petroleum Company executive, to his adolescent and young adult years in Baghdad and as a student at the American Jesuit high school, Baghdad College, Balian treats readers to personal stories in a place that’s become known only as a place where devastating explosions are a daily occurrence and American soldiers go to die. Balian’s motivation for writing the book, he says, "came from friends and acquaintances who seemed interested in what I had to say about the Iraqis after our involvement in Iraq. They thought what I had to say needed telling." He continues, "Iraq was going through relatively normal times during the decades that I write about. Iraq was pro-West at this time. There was an underlying strong nationalistic sentiment among the middle class and educated masses to be independent but the main outside influence was a western influence. Indications are that history is about to repeat itself. Maybe there are lessons to be learned this time." "I believe the failure of the West in the past was that they did not take enough time to understand the Iraqi culture. I hope it will be different this time, and I hope this book will be helpful," he adds.The 250-page book is available only from www.Lulu.com as an e-book for $6.50 or $16.50 for a paperback copy. To view a preview of the book, go to the website and type "Balian" in the Search button.

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