I tend to be a sucker for stories of the righteous being downtrodden and still winning. It’s no surprise that I liked this story. In particular, I liked it because I am really tired of reading stories about those the Bush administration and it’s flunkies beat down, and when called to task the Bush administration wins. Well, this time they didn’t win. Legally, James Yee won on all points. He was still drummed out of the Army, but that happens often enough for simple office politics.
For those who didn’t follow the story in the newspapers, here’s the basic story as recounted in this book. James Yee is the son of a Chinese immigrant family (I can’t recall offhand whether it was his parents or grandparents who came to the U.S.) who joined the Army and attended West Point after graduating high school. While at West Point, he converted to Islam. After his enlistment was finished (aided by early discharge bonuses when the military downsized in the early 1990s) he attended an Islamic school in Damascus, seeking to be an imam (which I believe it the equivalent of a priest). When he returned to the U.S., he re-enlisted in the Army becoming a chaplain. Shortly afterward, the U.S. plunged into the war on terror
and re-christened the Guantánamo base (famous from A Few Good Men
) as a prison for foreigners swept up. Since most of the prisoners are Muslim, the Army assigned a Muslim chaplain to the camp. Yee was the third of those.
Despite 10 months of glowing reports on his work there, Yee was viewed with suspicion by his Christian and nationalistic superiors. He was arrested when he left the base on leave, then held in solitary confinement for 76 days. Despite bombastic rhetoric about his ties to Islamic terrorists, he was never charged with any terrorist crimes, and eventually the charges for the minor crimes were dismissed. Basically, his life was turned upside down for nothing.
The story is compelling, and so is the book. Yee’s ghostwriter, Aimee Molloy, has done a fine job of pacing the text. Boring and repetitive tales of nothing from before Yee’s enlistment aren’t included. There’s enough to give you an idea of what Yee was like. The bulk of the book is what life was like working in Guantánamo. And of course, the latter part of the book regards Yee’s legal woes.
Title: For God and country: faith and patriotism under fire
Author: James Yee, Aimee Molloy
Imprint / publisher: PublicAffairs / Perseus
Format: Hardcover
Length: 240 p. (includes index)
Publication date: 2005
ISBN-10: 1-58648-369-2
ISBN-13: 978-1-58648-369-2
Subject: Yee, James
Subject: United States. Army — Chaplains — Biography
Subject: Chaplains, Military — United States — Biography
Subject: Chaplains, Military — Islam
Subject: Muslims — United States — Biography
Subject: Chinese Americans — Biography
Subject: Guantánamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba)
Subject: War on Terrorism, 2001- — Social aspects
Subject: Muslims — Civil rights — United States — Case studies
Subject: False imprisonment — United States — Case studies
LC classification: UH23.Y44 2005
