Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Fall of Iraq (edição 2008)

This is an excellent book by one of the very best western reporters working in the Middle East. Cockburn has been reporting from Iraq since the 70s and so he has a far better insight and knowledge of the people and society than the vast majority of western reporters who parachuted in during the war. Also unlike the vast majority of western reporters who essentially holed up in the green zone, only rarely venturing out and that too when embedded in large military convoys, Cockburn was reporting from outside the green zone until 2006. This is reporting which conveys what was going on outside the U.S. war machine/bureaucracy and one gets a real feel for Iraq's recent history, the various factions and leaders vying for control in postwar Iraq and the lives and motivations of the Iraqi people. My fear that this would be an outdated account (it was published in 2008) from which i wouldn't learn much was entirely unfounded. An excellent book. ( )