This work should rank among the classics of war in our time, both as a historical document and as an eye-witness testament to human savagery. An epic study of the conflict in the Lebanon combining political analysis and war reporting that not only recounts the details of a terrible war, but also tells a story of betrayal and illusion, and of the Western blindness that has led inevitably to political and military catastrophe. Gunmen and collaborators, bomber pilots, diplomats, guerillas, feudal politicians, journalists, soldiers and kidnappers all fall under Fisk's critical, occasionally humorous, and often horrified scrutiny in this powerful account of a beautiful nation's demolition by foreign ambition and internal corruption. The work should appeal to those interested in the Middle East and its problems, and students of international politics.