The Wars Against Saddam: The Hard Road To Baghdad
by John Simpson
MacMillan $260
John Simpson will probably never live down his words on November 13, 2001, as he broadcast from Kabul: 'It was only BBC people who liberated this city. We got in ahead of Northern Alliance troops.'
The statement reeked of schoolboy braggadocio and failed to mention two fellow BBC reporters who preceded his arrival by a week. It is said his colleagues later joked that Simpson's next report would be a first-person account of his forming Afghanistan's interim government.
The criticism is unfair. Simpson has covered 34 wars in 34 years as a journalist. He may be a glory hound, but his courage is undeniable. Many journalists who have achieved far less than Simpson are far more insufferable.
Simpson always places himself at the centre of the action. He spares few details in recounting how he lost hearing in one ear when he and his team travelled with an American convoy bombed by American aircraft. Sixteen people were killed, including Kamaran Mohammed Abdurrazak, a 25-year-old who had offered his services as a translator after seeing Simpson on television. Simpson is guilt-ridden.