On the frontline - A reporter’s absorbing account of recent momentous events
Manhattan to Baghdadm

By Paul McGeough. Allen and Unwin. 288pp. $29.95

Reviewer :: David Sibley

Over the next few weeks, perhaps, we’ll be reading the words of foreign correspondents from newspapers about a certain place in the Middle East.

The place of foreign correspondents is crucial for the understanding of how conflicts erupt and develop and what happens during their course.

Reporters, such as the Sydney Morning Herald’s Paul McGeough, are able to say, in effect, “I was there, I saw it happen.”

This is especially important when those who dislike what has happened or would prefer another result had occurred challenge the veracity of actual events.

A good example of this is the Holocaust, where extreme right-wing ideologues have fashioned a virulent industry out of claiming the murder of 6 million Jews never occurred.

In McGeough’s case, he was in New York on September 11.

Just weeks before, he had been in Afghanistan, seeking to interview anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Masoud.

Months later he was back in Afghanistan, reporting on the collapse of the Taliban as a result of their support of Osama bin Laden’s al Qa’eda terrorist attack on September 11.

This is gritty, seat-of-the-pants reporting from the front line.

Although some might disagree with McGeough’s assessment of where the US has taken the war against international terrorism, it is hard to dispute his courage in writing hard-hitting news which is the basis of this book.

Manhattan to Baghdad is hard to put down and, given current events, might well be the first in a series from the accomplished correspondent.