Brian Griffith's Reviews > The Age of Jihad: Islamic State and the Great War for the Middle East

Cockburn covers the recent wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya in the best way--by just hanging out and talking with local people. He talks to them in lines to buy gas, or goes to hospitals and talks to the wounded. The insights he gets are just common sense, about how people try to protect themselves amid battles among politicians or foreign-backed militias. About how ordinary people try to survive in a region where each political faction tries to win by gaining foreign military support, and a circling host of foreign powers pick which militia to arm.