Behind Enemy Lies

The war of truth and lies in the Middle East

In this urgent and timely book, Patrick Cockburn writes as a historian of the present to describe the “forever wars” in the Middle East. Donald Trump promised to end these conflicts but failed. Now it is President Biden’s turn to decide whether the United States can back away from the most violent and unstable region in the world. The US and its allies do not have the strength to win, but they do have the power to avoid defeat, protracting conflicts interminably in the process. So far, there is little to suggest Biden will escape the regional quagmire that trapped his predecessors.

In Behind Enemy Lies, Cockburn examines the causes of these endless wars and why reporting on them in the West has markedly deteriorated in recent years. Governments and the public know less and less about who is fighting and why; propaganda increasingly replaces well-informed reporting. The modern era in the Middle East is notable not only for failed states but for failed journalism.

About the Author

Patrick Cockburn is a Middle East correspondent for the Independent and has worked previously for the Financial Times. He has written three books on Iraq’s recent history, including the National Book Circle Awards– shortlisted The Occupation and Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession (with Andrew Cockburn), as well as a memoir, The Broken Boy, and, with his son, a book on schizophrenia, Henry’s Demons, which was shortlisted for a Costa Award.

He won the Martha Gellhorn Prize in 2005, the James Cameron Prize in 2006, and the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2009. More recently he has been awarded Foreign Commentator of the Year at the 2013 Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards, Foreign Affairs Journalist of the Year in British Journalism Award 2014, and Foreign Reporter of the Year in Press Awards 2014.