The book

Jürgen Todenhöfer's book is an attempt to shed light on the other side of the story. It reports on how Iraqi people talk about the war, when there are no heavily-armed GIs in the vicinity. When neither helicopters nor humvees have been "cleansing" and securing the area for hours beforehand, for politicians and press convoys. "Why do you kill, Zaid?" 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 aims to clarify the fundamental differences between resistance fighters and terrorists.

The author attempts to give a voice to those who are truly fighting for justice and freedom. The "damned of this earth", as Frantz Fanon once called them. And just as in Algeria in the 1960s, and in Afghanistan in the 1980s, these were and are - in Iraq in the year 2008 - not the occupying troops, but the resistance fighters.