Me Against my Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda

Sometime in the future, historians will look back amazed at how little attention North American media paid to African issues in this time in history. In Scott Peterson's memoir Me Against my Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda (Routledge), he describes the wars, famines and destruction—all of which he witnessed—with careful and terrible thoroughness. He also reveals the incredibly stupid mistakes made by the U.S. and the United Nations in their policies and actions in these countries. Peterson mostly keeps himself out of the picture, concentrating on a detailed history and analysis of these three African debacles. I dreaded reading this book but Peterson makes it bearable because he has no political or personal axes to grind: he is simply telling the truth. This is an amazing, fascinating and unbelievably tragic story, which needs to be told and needs to be read.