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By Justin
The strengths of the book is that the book contains good material on why Saddam was regarded as a hero in the Arab world. He gives a pretty good history of the Middle East. Also, I like some of the "behind the scenes" information of the campaign against Iraq.
The weaknesses of the book are glaring. First, there are too many quotes. I do not really care what the assistant to the US Ambassador to some country that I never heard of says about something that an equally minute representative said about Saddam Hussien, just to give an example. Keep in mind that not ALL quotes were bad. Another thing is that the book STOPS at the bombing of Baghdad. The questions of why did Jordan support Iraq or Did Iraq and Iran mend fences were never mentioned. The major weaknes is that there was not enough historical distance at that time to justify writing a detailed work. In political terms, the book is above average. In military terms, it is pretty weak.
If someone was writing a paper on the Gulf War, I would recommend this book as a starting point. If someone wanted to know about military concerns, this is not the book for you.