The War We Could Not Stop: The Real Story of the Battle for Iraq [Paperback]

Randeep Ramesh (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 2004

The War We Could Not Stop, though written against the clock and without the benefit of either official papers or hindsight, is more than a simple eyewitness history. Suzanne Goldenberg pitched up in Baghdad in the third week of January. She left 89 days later having seen the most devastating attack on any city in modern times. Other reporters traveled with the coalition troops on ship and on land. At one point the Guardian and Observer between them had a dozen reporters and photographers inside Iraq. No future history of the war will be possible without reference to the daily dispatches of these and other journalists. Half a dozen reporters in America and three Arabic speakers around the region brought different perspectives. Defense, diplomatic, environmental, and political correspondents all played their parts. Toward the end of the fighting some peeled off from day-to-day writing to re-interview some of the central players in a story that had shaken the world. Millions of Americans flooded to the Guardian Unlimited website over the past months in search of a texture and range of both reporting and comment they felt lacking in the United States. This book provides a comprehensive narrative of that reporting.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"No staff members of a daily paper that I have heard of, on either side of the Atlantic, are so free from instruction or the subtler menace of editorial 'guidance."

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press (March 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560256095
• ISBN-13: 978-1560256090
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,871,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dont Judge a Book By its Cover, March 18, 2004

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The War We Could Not Stop: The Real Story of the Battle for Iraq (Paperback)

This book was written by the journalists of a British daily newspaper and to be honist the title is probably geared to the rather anti war population in the UK. I read the book when it first came about in the UK about 9 months ago and at the time it was one of the first books that provided detailed coverage of the war through the eyes of different reporters in the field. Basically the book is a bunch of expanded articles that were written for the paper by the reporters in the field. The book focuses on both the lead up to he war and the actual war. As the reporters were UK based I think they provided a UK bias in their reporting, which is an interesting slant given the view is probably closer to the overall view in the EU then of American reporters.

The reporting of the political situation is geared to UK politicians and for me I found this of average interest. What I think the book did the best at was the embedded reporters stories of field combat. What was surprising to me based on the title of the book and the organization that put it out, the field reporting seemed to cover just what was taking place without a lot of anti war bias. It also provides some interesting views of what the British troops were doing. Overall it is an interesting book, but not the full story nor the only book to read on the war.