Review Martyrs’ Day, Chronicle of a Small War

Kelly, Michael, Martyrs’ Day, Chronicle of a Small War, New York: Vintage Books, 2001

 

Michael Kelly was a journalist who traveled throughout the Middle East during the Gulf War. His book, Martyrs’ Day, Chronicle of a Small War reads like a travel journal. It is full of all the places he went from Iraq to Jordan to Israel to Egypt to Saudi Arabia to Turkey, the people he met and the adventures he had. There are some interesting parts like his interviews with Kuwaitis right after the Gulf War and Iraqis during the sanctions, but it is not essential reading. It’s more of a deep background book or for someone who wants a light read.

 

The author’s conversations with people in Iraq and the Middle East are the best part of the book. When he was in Jordan at the start of the Gulf War for instance, nearly everyone he talked to supported Saddam and believed that Israel would be dragged into the conflict and lose. Kelly was able to capture some of the feelings on the street which were pro-Iraq in many countries in the region.

 

Kelly went into Kuwait on the heels of the Coalition forces and was able to paint a picture of the country which is rarely mentioned in books on the topic. First he noted how almost all the Kuwaitis he talked to were part of the elite and very wealthy. One talked about how he and all his friends hid their luxury cars from the Iraqis so they wouldn’t be stolen. People accused the Iraqis of looting everything they could find as they withdrew. Others pointed out the many executions that took place during the Iraqi occupation. The head of the Kuwait City morgue said he saw between 400-700 bodies of people killed by the Iraqis. Kuwaitis also complained that there was no food or supplies right after the war and blamed the government for not taking care of the populace. Finally, he went to a town along the Iraqi border and found Palestinians, Egyptians and Algerians the Kuwaiti authorities rounded up and dumped there and told to leave because they were believed to be Saddam supporters. This was the most interesting part of Kelly’s journey because it is rarely mentioned in other releases about the Gulf War. Western books largely skip Kuwaitis entirely.

 

In the last part of Martyrs’ Day, Kelly was back in Iraq after the war during the sanctions period. A businesswoman complained about crime being everywhere with people being mugged and stealing. She said the biggest criminals were the police who would shake people down for money. A member of the Catholic Relief Services was keeping track of inflation which was skyrocketing and said that the poor and children suffered the most under such situations while the rich were still well off. The author went to a Baghdad hospital and interviewed a doctor who said there was no medicine and child deaths were quickly rising as a result. This is a common story about how Iraqi society crumbled in the 1990s under sanctions. The middle class was devastated as most of the populace was impoverished while Saddam and his cronies maintained their lifestyles.

 

The ending of the book reflects the general American consensus in the 2000s about Iraq. Kelly argued that the U.S. should’ve continued onto Baghdad during the Gulf War and deposed Saddam. He believed the occupation would’ve been easy because Iraqis would’ve welcomed the Americans. He thought the U.N. sanctions failed and only empowered Saddam. The author felt the same about the U.N. weapons inspectors and believed that Iraq was still working on its WMD and supporting Islamic terrorists. He was basically advocating for regime change like most of the American media was in the lead up to the 2003 invasion. Almost all of his ideas were wrong but reflect what the U.S. elite and foreign policy makers believed at the time.

 

If someone is looking for a casual read about the Gulf War and its aftermath than Martyrs’ Day might be a good choice. It’s a very fast and easy read. At its best Kelly provides some interesting background such as postwar Kuwait which is rarely covered in other books. On the other hand if someone wants a history of the conflict there are other books which are far better.

 

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