Auction round II: Buy another signed book, help even more Iraqi refugees

The first round of book sales to benefit Iraqi refugees was unexpectedly successful, raising $1,400. Thanks to all of you who sent money — especially the generous librarian who said she didn’t want any books but contributed $200.

I need to run a second round, because some other authors have sent along books. Again, the books are all signed by the authors,  and are offered for $50 each:

David Hoffman, The Dead Hand: The untold story of the Cold War arms race. (This year’s Pulitzer Prize winner for non-fiction, by the way. David has generously donated six signed copies.)

Only got one copy of the following two:

Quang X. Pham, A Sense of Duty (Going from being a Vietnamese refugee to a Marine Corps pilot during the Gulf War).

Ralph Peters, Endless War.

Plus, as usual, my four books:

Fiasco
The Gamble
A Soldier’s Duty
Making the Corps

If you want the set of all seven books, send a check for $300. To send an order, use the e-mail address at the right, near my bio, to tell me what you want, and I’ll send you info on who to make the check out to, etc. First come, first served.

Also, I asked Alexandra Moller, who is the lead organizer for IRAC, for a statement about the group. Here is what she had to say:

Since 2006, more than 50,000 Iraqis have been admitted to resettle in the U.S. The mission of IRAC (Iraqi Refugee Assistance Collaborative) is to assist those Iraqis by providing them with a website where their questions about life in America will be answered by knowledgeable volunteers.

IRAC’s mission is based on the experience of Naseer Nouri, an Iraqi refugee who resettled in the U.S. in 2008. Naseer fled Iraq because his work as a Washington Post special correspondent (from 2003-2008) caused his family to be targeted by militants. Naseer spent 30 years as an aircraft engineer at Iraqi Airways and now works for U.S. Airways but he spends most of his free time helping Iraqi refugees adjust to life in the U.S.  Naseer’s own adjustment was greatly eased by the help and advice he received from Washington Post colleagues.

Naseer created IRAC in order to share with Iraqi refugees the type of help and advice that he received from friends. "These people," says Naseer, "if they don’t succeed here they’ll return to Iraq. I know two families that returned and were killed by insurgents. What we’re doing is saving lives."