One night last February, I was in Amman, Jordan interviewing Iraqis who had fled the catastrophic violence of 2006 and 2007. My partner in this work was my friend and colleague “Ali”(not his real name), who is himself an Iraqi refugee. While we walked through the city’s dark streets, quietly considering together the dozens of stories of horror, brutality, and loss we’d heard in the last few hours alone, I was seized by a spasm of rage and sadness. Ali took my arm and shook me.

“Stop it,” Ali said. “I understand why you’re feeling this way, and thank you. But Iraqis don’t need this now. What we need is for you to be smart, to work hard, and to stay with us, because the whole world has forgotten us.”…

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