IRAQ JOURNAL 2003 is Shane Claiborne's account of his peacemaking trip to Iraq in March 2003, just before the US invasion. Told mostly through emails that he sent home, this book offers a gracious and humanizing depiction of the Iraqi people. Shane Claiborne is a member of the Simple Way community in Philadelphia and is also author of the recent book THE IRRESISTIBLE REVOLUTION (Zondervan 2006). From the rear cover: "One of the children we are close to, Amal, decided to celebrate her 13th birthday with us! So we had a feast, grilled out in a park nearby... As we were playing a little game of balloon volleyball, bombs began to explode in the background. The adults all looked uneasily at each other, but we kept playing. Then one explosion hit very close. A couple of us huddled down with the little children... These children were raised hearing bombs, in 1998, in 1991... and yet they will still play in a park with the people whose country is destroying theirs... As bombs continued to thunder in the background, I was reminded once again that life is more powerful than death, that children can teach old tyrants and cynics how to love."