With a death toll that continues to mount obscenely, claiming both Iraqi and American lives, the fiction that the war in Iraq is over has long been laid bare. Instead, there is a new emphasis on uncovering the chaotic complexities of the situation, from the time it began to unfold in 2002 until the present day. Few people can cast as authoritative an eye on the meaning of it all as veteran newsman Charles Glass, who has spent over thirty years covering the Middle East and who has had unique access to the players brokering power on all sides of the Second Gulf War and its endless aftermath. In these diaries, which blend thoughtful analysis with personal experiences from the field, Glass brings to life the political machinations that led inexorably to today’s quagmire.