- Hardcover: 496 pages
- Publisher: Macmillan; First Edition edition (7 Nov 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1405032642
- ISBN-13: 978-1405032643
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 766,421 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Wars Against Saddam: Taking the Hard Road to Baghdad
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
By no means the first Saddam book and certainly not the last, but this is John Simpson, the BBC's World Affair's Editor, and it's a safe bet that of all the Saddam books past, present and forthcoming this will be one of the better reads. He's urbane, wears his learning lightly and writes in much the same way as he delivers copy to camera, which is to say clearly, engagingly, and with just the right number of rhetorical flourishes. There can be a problem with books about contemporary history. Sometimes they lack historical perspective. A broader context can be missing due to limited access to official documents. And there are a lot of them about. But John Simpson was there at the fall of Saddam, has the shrapnel wounds to prove it, and, like any good correspondent, can always be relied on to tell it like it was.
Product Description
'You can't really argue with much that John Simpson says - there is no foreign correspondent left on TV who has a fraction of his recognition and his credibility, a fact which may be unfair on the others, but happens to be true'; That was Simon Hoggart reviewing Simpson's devastating Panorama profile of Saddam Hussein, broadcast in early November 2002. This riveting, important and timely new book is the summation of more than twenty years covering Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The War Against Saddam offers, in five acts, the full story of his rise to power and the West's relationship with Saddam throughout his dictatorship. The fifth act is yet to be played out on the world stage, but Simpson will be there to cover any war with Iraq and to report on its outcome and its consequences. It will be a major work of serious reportage and essential reading for us all.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great adventurer and journalist !!!,
By
This review is from: The Wars Against Saddam: Taking the Hard Road to Baghdad (Hardcover)
John Simpson seems to go to places now one else will go. He can talk himself out of the most dangerous situations, taking the reader on a journey through the hotspots of the world. His journalism in this book is top class. He gives both sides of the story, we need that. Its nothing to do with being anti this or pro that, it is to do with the realism of situations. John Simpson describes Saddam with great clarity, his egotism, his cruelty, his want of being the next Nasser, leader of Arab Nations. It all came to nought with the power of American forces after September 11th. John described how he and his crew had been bombed and the guilt of losing his translator. Reporting away from the embedded reporters was the only way he could report what he thought was going on. That it was dangerous being a free reporter in a war torn Iraq, and how many other reporters did not come back alive. Thank goodness, he came back alive to tell us his thoughts and experiences.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Super personal narrative,
By
This review is from: The Wars Against Saddam: Taking the Hard Road to Baghdad (Hardcover)
What you must bear in mind when reading Simpson's book is not to confuse what he is writing with a historical assessment of events. To be fair he doesn't claim this to be the case. However when reading what he writes of current and not so current events it is easy to regard what he writes as hard fact. In the most case it probably is, however some of his statements appear affected by his well documented brush with death in Northern Iraq. Namely his stance that the American soldiers were more concerned with keeping themselves alive than protecting the lives of civilians. A statement open to interesting and lively debate one feels. However as with the rest of his books Simpson shows himself to be thoroughly informed, brave, and prepared to admit his errors. The last charateristic makes him eminently more believable.The coverage of Hussain's rise to power and probable motivations are simply superb. That combined with extensive coverage of both Gulf Wars as well as detail on the now ignored Iran-Iraq war make this book fascinating and impossible to put down. If you are looking for a dry historical review this is not it. But if you want an inside track and synopsis on the past 20 years in the middle east by the man who has been there and seen it all, this is it and is unlikely to be bettered. The only reason I have not given five stars, is that one or two sections appeared poorly edited, a repetition of previously stated facts only a page or two before. Not enough to annoy, but enough to notice.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Journalism at its best,
By Justin "Justin" (Bristol, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Wars Against Saddam: Taking the Hard Road to Baghdad (Hardcover)
There have already been many books published about the Second Gulf War. Many of these have been written by people who were there and actually witnessed the events unfolding. Some were even written by those who witnessed the action. But how many of these people can claim to have have not only witnessed these events but fallen victim to them? How many can claim to have not only witnessed the events of the Second Gulf War but been in Baghdad during the First Gulf War and even witnessed the massacre by Chemical Ali at Halabjah during the Iran-Iraq war? There are obviously some but not many, and certainly not many with several decades of journalistic experience to recount on. John Simpson has. There's one thing witnessing an event from the sidelines but it's quite another thing to have actually been there and fall victim at that. Apart from giving a very interesting and authoritive history to Iraq and Saddam's regime of terror, John Simpson recounts in vivid and sometimes disturbing detail how he witnessed the gassing at Halabjah and was then gassed himself, how he stayed in Baghdad in 1991 when hundreds of journalists packed up and fled and, perhaps more emotionally, how an American missile struck him and his crew, wounding him and killing eighteen others, including his translator. Please buy this book. It will bring out a flood of emotions in you. Simpson describes his experiences so vividly and in such graphic detail you feel that you are actually there. Only the real feelings of pain from the torture caused by Saddam and the incompetence of trigger-happy the US Army are missing.
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