[CJ Mars]

It’s a good read alright Win. If you like this I’d highly recommend “My War gone by, I miss it so” by Anthony Lyold. In a nutshell the true story of how ex British army officer Lyold accidentally stumbles into journalism while covering the wars in Bosnia between 1991 and 1995. Along the way he develops a full blown smack problem while becoming steadily more traumatised by the atrocities he sees. My only criticism is that it is slightly one sided in that his sympathies are very much with the Bosnian Muslims .Atrocity is piled upon atrocity here and it’s a pretty grim read. I met people who had known him in Bosnia and there is a widespread view among other journalists that he was actually involved in active combat there.

There is a great final section when the by now thoroughly hooked on carnage Lyold reports on the first war in Chechnya which will make you question a lot of what is put out by Bush and Putin about that particular conflict. Its written nearly 10 years ago but his contention that the Russians would never win by military force looks as accurate today as when he wrote it.