Part of Series
In the second Quarterly Essay of 2004, Paul McGeough offers a dramatic account of why Iraq remains in chaos despite desperate American efforts to create a model democracy in the Middle East. According to McGeough, Iraq to this day remains a tribal society. It cannot be governed without the cooperation of the true powers in the land, the tribal and religious sheikhs. Those who have ruled Iraq in the past, including Saddam Hussein and the British before him, understood this fact. The Americans, by contrast, seem to have missed the point. In Mission Impossible, Paul McGeough enters the world of key Iraqi tribal and religious leaders. There are vivid portraits of the sheikhs' role in the fall and capture of Saddam, as well as their part in the growing insurgency. There are glimpses, too, of a history that once involved Lawrence of Arabia and Gertrude Bell, and which pre-dates Islam, stretching back thousands of years. Combining reportage and analysis in brilliant fashion, this groundbreaking essay is well timed to coincide with the next major phase in Iraq's troubled history. "Throughout the history of their region, the sheikhs have been the powerbrokers, deciding who would reign between the great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates." —Paul McGeough, Mission Impossible
Author
Foreign Correspondent, Sydney Morning Herald Paul McGeough is an author and award-winning foreign correspondent specializing in frontline reporting. As Chief Correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia's leading quality newspaper, McGeough has reported for the last eight years from the US, Iraq and Afghanistan on war and the change wrought in the world in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks which he witnessed in the streets of New York. Seventeen years ago McGeough was in Baghdad during the US bombing campaign in the First Gulf War. Most recently, he has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon during the post 9/11 wars in those countries; and from Pakistan, Iran, the Palestinian Occupied Territories and the US. In Afghanistan in 2001, McGeough survived a Taliban ambush in which three of his media colleagues were killed in the last days of the war. The Irish-born McGeough is a former managing editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. Among many acknowledgements for his work, McGeough has twice been named Australian Journalist of the Year. In the aftermath of 9/11, he received an award for excellence in international reporting from the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. He has won numerous Walkley Awards - the Australian equivalent of the Pulitzer. And in 2006, his on-line video reporting also was acknowledged internationally. He regularly appears on television and radio as a commentator and analyst on world affairs, including on CNN, CBS, Fox and various other U.S. networks. He also had made appearances on the BBC, RTE (Ireland ) and all the key TV and radio news networks in Australia. Awards:
- 2003 Walkley Award for Journalism Leadership
- 2010 Douglas Stewart award and Book of the Year for "Kill Khalid" at the 2010 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards
