I read Ayman Oghanna’s article in late 2016 while working at the Syria Desk for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Ahmed’s death was a devastating example of the cost of the battle for Mosul. ‘The toughest urban battle since WWII’. It was nine months long.

I began the story because I wanted to return life to Ahmed. What could he have done had he survived? What would he have done? Left the army? Went home to his family? Become a gun for hire in another theater of combat? Seen the world?

Made in Mosul Is a tribute to the life of Ahmed and men like him. I called them The Cleaners, because they were tasked with cleaning up the mess the US made of their country. Westerners see Iraqis as garbagemen. They can take the crap and the casualties of American Middle East policy. 

The years of war in Iraq spawned heroes of immeasurable skill and resilience. Ahmed could have been an Arab James Bond.