The Northern Front: A Wartime Diary

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 a 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. '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 of the events leading up to the war and the chaos of the war itself.' Ian Gilmour 'Should be mandatory reading for all wannabe foreign correspondents.' Jonathan Randal 'A beautifully written account of the full sweep of the war and of what it was like to report on it. A starting-point for any proper understanding of the whole contentious business of the Iraq war.' John Simpson 'In the finest tradition of radical reporting - anti-war, sympathetic, compassionate and enlightening.' Phillip Knightley, author of The First Casualty