Peterson makes up for his emotionalism in his later chapters on Sudan, not by being less impassioned or less negative but by better acknowledging the complexities of that situation. While agonizing over the horrors of the Sudanese civil war and attacking various political and charitable organizations for their parts in it, he finally loses his self-righteousness and voices honest, complicated questions about how and whether outside intervention should have taken place. He does not have the answers, but I do not count that against him since no one else does, either. At least he is trying to draw lessons from these situations, rather than merely drubbing everyone in sight. His closing chapters on Rwanda are his best yet, perhaps because the moral equation is even simpler, the evil even greater, than in Somalia and Sudan.

Despite the fact that I read the second paperback edition of this book, there were a number of typos and editorial screw-ups, including a couple of misspellings and a substantial number of mixed-up soundalikes (the most embarrassing being that the author twice, when he describes people chewing, says they are "emasculating" things rather than "masticating" them). But other than these errors, Peterson’s vivid and powerful writing works. While Me Against My Brother is not a comprehensive policy discussion (even where it tries to be), the book perhaps fulfills a greater function. Peterson’s authorial power and passionate heart make it impossible for the reader not to care about the subject matter, and want to find out more about it. The generation that solves the problems Peterson decries can only do so if it knows about, and cares about, those problems. Peterson is doing his part to bring that generation into being, and he deserves our thanks for it.


Courageous, but typically, it's all the West's fault...   February 11, 2002
 24 out of 33 found this review helpful

"Me Against My Brother" is the summary of the author's experiences in the middle of the African wars during the mid-1990s. Scott Peterson's bravery in reporting these events, which most of the civilized world simply ignored, is admirable. At the same time, his finger-pointing is overwhelmingly in the direction of the U.S. and the U.N., and it becomes tiresome.

The book is broken into 3 sections focusing on Peterson's experiences in the war zones of these countries: Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda. The section on Somalia provided a great background and lead-in to the events recently made famous through Mark Bowden's "Black Hawk Down." The Sudan chapters gave me a deeper insight into the most widely ignored African country at war in the 1990s, but disappointingly, Peterson's focus was mainly on the in-fighting between Christian factions in southern Sudan, despite the fact that the Muslim government in Khartoum (which sheltered Osama Bin Laden for years) is clearly most responsible for the horrendous slave and murder industry that still exists in Sudan to this day. Finally, Peterson's discussion of Rwanda is easily the most depressing and convicting when one considers what the U.S. and U.N. failed to prevent.

Obviously, the United States and the United Nations (specifically its Western members) are worthy targets of some blame for failure to act and, possibly, for criminal behavior in some acts when intervention was attempted. But Peterson's focus is so lopsided in the direction of these governments that it almost seems he has forgotten who the actual perpetrators of the massacres were. It reminded me of a quote I read recently from a Western diplomat who was frustrated with the amazing ability of the international media to find moral equivalency between the West and the most murderous, tyrannical regimes: "They equate our imperfections with their evil."

Peterson provides the perfect example of this. Despite giving accounts of the most horrific murders and evils performed by Somalian warlords, Peterson harps incessantly on American and U.N. imperfections, even claiming: "If brought before an international court, UN forces in Somalia would almost certainly have been found guilty of violating the laws of war." Reading that, I can only wonder of what Somalian warlords, who machine-gunned the women and children of their own country in order to prevent the success of U.N. airdrops of food, would be found guilty. Moral equivalency...

Again, in Rwanda, the overwhelming objects of Peterson's criticism are the United States and the Clinton administration, the latter of which I was no fan. But the guilt in the United States' failure to intervene and stop the Hutus' genocidal massacres of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994, while sad, is simply not morally comparable to what these Rwandan murderers did. Peterson seems to have lost sight of this fact.

One story, for sake of example: several Belgian U.N. troops were dispatched to try and stop the killing of the Rwandan prime minister, a woman. When confronted by the advancing Hutus, these U.N. troops laid down their weapons in hopes of preventing an annhilation of both sides. In return, their Achilles tendons were eached hacked with machetes to prevent their escape. They were then castrated and gagged with their own genitalia, then killed along with the prime minister. One could scan the entire list of atrocities perpetrated by Americans throughout their country's history, and it would take a serious stretch to equate the very worst of that list to this one event in Rwanda, which occurred less than 8 years ago. Even then, those far-stretched incidents would be extreme anomalies, whereas this event was, and is, very close to the norm in Rwanda and many African and Muslim countries. Moral equivalency...

This is a well-written, courageous book full of facts and events that depressingly few Americans know anything about, but it is sadly tainted by yet another member of the mainstream American and European media who is unable to differentiate between the imperfections of our leaders and societies... and the utter evil at the very core of theirs. For those of you hoping or thinking that the United States and its allies will decide once and for all to put an end to these evil regimes (Sudan and Somalia, as well as Syria, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, etc., etc.), look no further than this book for a good example of why our leaders will continue to balk at taking the necessary (and morally justified) steps to do so anytime in the foreseeable future.


The ills of nations....   January 27, 2002
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

British journalist Scott Peterson was an old hand at reporting in Africa by the time the 'New World Order' was tested by Somalia in the early '90s. For this reason, his shock and horror at the events he describes in this book carries weight. Covering Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda, different approaches to solving the same problems of civil war and hunger are effectively juxtaposed - ultimately providing few concrete answers to the 'peacekeeping problem', but being highly instructive all the same.

For those just home from seeing the new movie _Black Hawk Down_ (Americans especially), I think _Me Against My Brother_ should be required reading. Peterson spends half of his book on Somalia, and provides clear and concise background information on the origins of the unrest there. His analysis is evenhanded, spreading plenty of blame around: to the UN, the U.S. Armed Forces, the Somali warlords, and the Somali people themselves. I felt the book portrayed a bad situation steadily made worse by all parties involved, rightly leaving them smarting from their involvement.

The next quarter of the book examines the Sudan. A timely topic in this time of heightened sensitivity to Muslim/Christian conflict, Peterson shows how damaging such conflicts can be. Again he provides good, brief background material and plenty of firsthand accounts from southern Sudan; the front lines. The section on the Sudan underscored a civil war where, unlike Somalia, humanitarian aid was distributed without accompanying military intervention. The result is a graphic illustration of how such well meaning aid organizations can be manipulated, prolonging suffering rather than quelling it.

A third contrast is provided by the last section of the book - Rwanda. There, the conflict was so terrifying that not only was there no military intervention, but no humanitarian effort either. Rwanda was so atrocious, so dangerous, that Peterson (who had been-there-done-that as far as African wars are concerned) was almost too overwhelmed with fear to go there. No aid, few pictures, nearly a million dead. Essentially an inferno of violence that burned until there no no fuel of Tutsi and moderate Hutu bodies left to sustain it.

I consider myself fairly educated and aware. Peterson jolted me awake. His eyewitness accounts are riveting, his analyses fairly impartial. In this book he shows a conflict where we tried to intervene with force, one where the intervention was in the form of aid, and one where no one lifted a finger. In all three cases, the results were varying degrees of the same hunger, anarchy, and death. Therefore, Peterson gives no prescription for curing the ills of Africa, but does a fine job of noting the symptoms of the illness.

I highly recommend this book. I learned from it immensely, and I'm sure you will too.


". . . The world's most sophisticated military force "   September 24, 2001
 2 out of 5 found this review helpful

". . . The world's most sophisticated military force had been outmanuevered by a ragtag band of warriors. . ." says the author about the war in Somalia. How soon we forget that even after the relative sucess in the Gulf War, our military effort failed shortly thereafter in Somalia. According to the book, from the Somalian point of view, the cause was that Americans are unable to coordinate with each other. An expert, who was interviewed on t.v. today, expressed the view that the WTC incident was at least partly due to security lapses when the CIA, INS, and FAA did not communicate with each other. Perhaps our enemies have learned our weak spot.
For all those disappointed by the single-minded views expressed these days by the "free" American press, reading this book will reassure you that there are other views.


revealing   July 10, 2001
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

This book written by Scott Peterson who is a journalist that covered the events of the 3 countries in the 90's.The title appropriately comes from a Somali proverb.It is divide into 3 parts each dealing with a Country. Somalia He describes in harrowing detail the events that led a UN humanitarian mission to derail and become a tragedy.He shows how a series of initially small misteps became a catastrophe with the UN gradually being drawn in as a combatant in a fatricidal civil war.He introduces us to the various dramatis personnae including General Farah Aideed.A historical perspective is also given to the conflict starting from Precolonial to Colonial times. SUDAN He discusses the 45 year old fatricidal civil war between the largely Arab North and the African Chritian and African Traditional religionists in the South.He also shows that both sides have been dependent on AID and also committed atrocities.He interviewed the 2 factions in the South.He also illuminates the discussion with a quite brilliant historical perspective to the conflict.However since oil has recently been exploited in commercial quantities this has fueled the conflict,but this was not discussed probably since it was not an issue when he was in Sudan. RWANDA The genocide of 1994 by the largely HUTU government and Hutu citizens agains the Tutsi minority is discussed.He also describes the events that led to these problems.The involvement or lack thereof of the UN,French,Belgians,Catholic church and Mass media is also discussed.He discusses the conditions in the camps in Congo and also the Tutsi Kibeho massacre of the Tutsi's. This book is highly recommended.My take is that unless the root cause is addressed history will repeat itself.