A National Book Critics' Circle Award Finalist: A compelling, masterly portrait of a country ravaged by foreign occupation.

In March 2003, Patrick Cockburn traveled secretly to Iraq just before the invasion, and has covered the war from inside the country ever since. In this devastating, courageous and highly acclaimed book, he describes the fighting on the ground as Saddam's armies collapsed, the looting of Baghdad, the many failures of the US occupation, the springs of the resistance and how it turned into a full-scale uprising, and the country's collapse into civil war. In this new edition, brought completely up to date in a new chapter, Cockburn explores the impact of the "surge" of US forces into the country. Book of the Year for 2006 in the Guardian, Observer, Evening Standard, Mail on Sunday and Glasgow Herald.