By James Yee with Aimee Molloy [Public Affairs Books, 240pp., 2005]

The accomplishment of For God and Country, doubtless, is the downsizing and so humanizing of a tragic theme: By recording the painful ordeal of a patriotic Muslim American, Yee offers us insight into the deep tragedy that is the so-called War on Terrorism. Combine the eagerness of ignorance and the relentlessness of suspicion, and one sees why, for all that was promised, the American response to 9/11 cannot effectively articulate its goals, let alone the democratic means to achieving them. Yee himself is an example of this failure.

Born to a hardworking family of patriotic Chinese Americans, Yee’s journey to the military might seem more inevitable than his interest in Islam. Converting from Lutheranism in 1991, Yee at first didn’t consider his shift in faith to be particularly “momentous.” But after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1990, Yee’s tours of duty took him to Saudi Arabia and deepened his attachment to Islam. In November 2002, the well-regarded Yee was appointed Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay.