Publisher Description

This is the Iraq war as it really started, amid lies, confusion and profound distrust between the United States and its Iraqi allies. Charles Glass, who first covered the Kurds in 1974 and was in Iraq for their failed rebellion in 1991, depicts the tense epoch that sowed the seeds of America's inevitable failure there. "The Northern Front" is the dramatic eyewitness account of the machinations of Iraqi leaders - Ahmad Chalabi, Abdel Aziz Hakim, Massoud Barzani and Jelal Talabani - to control the country before their opponents seized the initiative. Glass recounts what went wrong when the US, with Britain in tow, imposed its will on people unlikely to accept foreign designs for their future. He indicts international media conglomerates that failed to tell the truth when public debate could have prevented the deaths and destruction that came with war.

Author Biography

Charles Glass was chief Middle East correspondent for ABC News until his kidnap by Hizbullah in Lebanon in 1993. He is an established journalist and political commentator with an international reputation. His other books are Tribes with Flags, Money for Old Rope and The Tribes Triumphant.

Review

'Witty and absorbing ... Essential, and humbling, reading for all those pundits and commentators who think they understand what happened in Iraq.' Malise Ruthven, author of A History of the Arab Peoples 'A vivid picture not only of the events leading up to the war and the chaos of the war itself but also of some of the Iraqi emigres who were hoping to take over the government of Iraq.' Ian Gilmour 'Should be mandatory reading for all wannabe foreign correspondents.' Jonathan Randal, author of After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? - Encounters with Kurdistan. 'In the finest tradition of radical reporting - anti-war, sympathetic, compassionate and enlightening.' Phillip Knightley, author of The First Casualty 'A beautifully written account of the full sweep of the war and of what it was like to report on it. His diary should in future serve as the starting-point for any proper understanding of the whole contentious business of the Iraq war.' John Simpson

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