Me Against My Brother

Me Against My Brother: At War in Somaila, Sudan and Rwanda is the first-hand accounts of Scott Peterson's reporting from these locations in Africa during their periods of conflict. Scott also discusses the events that transpired to bring about these conflicts.


Table of Contents
Part I
SOMALIA: Warlords Triumphant

1. Laws of War
2. "City of the Insane"
3. A Land Forgotten by God
4. "Club Skinny-- Dancers Wanted"
5. "Camp of the Murderers"
6. The Fugitive
7. Bloody Monday
8. Mission Impossible
9. Back to Zero

Part II
SUDAN: Endless Crusade

10. Divided By God
11. War of the Cross
12. The False Messiah
13. Darwin Deceived

Part III
RWANDA: The Machete War

14. A Holocaust
15. "Dreadful Note of Preparation
16. Genocide Denied
17. In Perpetuum

I very much enjoyed this book. It's Scott's story of covering these conflicts as a professional journalist, but he also devotes a fair amount of time to the world events that surrounded them. Most of this analysis is devoted to the failures of participants in these conflicts to either act or take appropriate actions. Examples would be the failure of US leaders to adequately appreciate the reactions of Somalis to their actions, leading to the inaction of US leaders on the issue of genocide in Rwanda. Blame is not only heaped upon the Western powers, though, and the crimes and inadequacies of African players are also highlighted.

This book is written at a fairly high level, there is little by way of actual on-the-scene tactics. However, Scott does spend a lot of time discussing unconvential strategic techniques used by the combatants in these conflict, such as manipulating aid agencies to gain access to relief supplies for troops. Anyone running a modern African wargaming campaign would benefit greatly from reading this book.

Me Against My Brothers: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda
Scott Peterson
Routledge, 2000
ISBN: 0-415-92198-8