Those who are interested in the history (and failures) of Arab communism should read the account of Rahim `Ajinah, Al-Akhtiyar Al-Mutajaddid, on the Iraqi Communist Party. There are so many disturbing elements in that history, and the writer tried to provide an honest account but the worst chapter is when the party aligned itself with Saddam Husayn's regime. I don't have time to say more about this account as there are many things to comment on: it was astonishing that when the regime was killing communists in Iraq, the party was busy arguing about the attitude toward the Rejectionist Front. There are the inevitable accounts of prison and exiles that surrounded the lives of Arab communists (except Lebanese). His ordeal in the prisons of the Iranian Islamic republic is very disturbing: when he described his physical suffering in jail, it made me wonder how people react to jail conditions. I know that I would not do well in jail, and hope to never have that experience. Would I be as easy to break as Michel `Aflaq: I don't know. Oh, and there is that famous discussion of the business of Fakhri Karim.