It's said that the first casualty in a war is truth, as both sides jostle to defend their positions. In the Iraq war, the BBC deployed an unrivalled team of correspondents to cover the complex issues involved and to seek out the truth. For this book, top correspondents, including John Simpson, Rageh Omaar and Fergal Keane, have written a series of incisive and accessible essays which guide the reader through each stage of the Iraq crisis. The book also contains first-hand accounts from the front lines. Some BBC correspondents, such as Ben Brown and Gavin Hewitt, were "embedded" with US and British troops; they provide unique snapshots of combat and the hazards of reporting through the "fog of war". Title guides the reader through each stage of the crisis, from the evolution of American policy after 9/11, through the diplomatic and political confrontation in the run-up to war, to the campaign itself and the prospects for Iraq's post-war reconstruction.

Maps

Chronology

Foreword

Front-line Stories

Clive Myrie, Adam Mynott, Andrew North,

Ben Brown, Gavin Hewitt, David Willis

ONE The Road to War

Fergal Keane

TWO Showdown at the UN

Bridget Kendall

THREE Top Gun - Bush Rises to the Challenge

Matt Frei

FOUR Blair's Gamble

Martha Kearney

FIVE The Disunited States of Europe

Stephen Sackur

SIX 'Shock and Awe' - an Inevitable Victory

Paul Adams

SEVEN A Baghdad Diary

Rageh Omaar

EIGHT Saddam - a Dictator of Mass Destruction

John Simpson

NINE Confusion and Betrayal - an Arab Mosaic

Caroline Hawley

TEN The Northern Front and the Kurds" Endgame

Jim Muir

ELEVEN "All About Oil?" The Economics of War

Evan Davis

TWELVE Vox Populi - Worldwide War-talk on the Web

Paul Reynolds

THIRTEEN Promise and Fear - Iraq's Future in the

Balance

Allan Little

Index