Jason Arment

Musalaheen Jason Arment

"Musalaheen! Musalaheen!" The child cried twice before turning to run back inside. He peered at me from behind the doorjamb. I stood stunned for a moment, arm extended in front of me. I looked at the glove on my hand, blackened from sewage and dirt, torn apart by razor wire and rocks. I realized, if I were him, I wouldn't shake my hand either. Musalaheen is the Arabic word for gunslinger. Jason Arment, serving as a Machine Gunner in the United States Marine Corps during Operation Iraqi Freedom, is both gunman and witness in this memoir. Musalaheen is a chronicle of boots on the ground in an occupied land and Arment unflinchingly offers the reader a window into their own complicity in genocidal empire building.