Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read Regarding Our Future & Our Past
Review: Peterson has written an excellent report on the atrocities that have taken place under our eyes in Africa. Most Americans know about Somalia from "Black Hawk Down" but Peterson reports from a different perspective and brings new light to an old meaning. He reports on what both the UN and the US did wrong while on a "peace mission." I would have hoped we would have learned our lesson but some aspects Peterson describes ring much too true for our involvement in Iraq as well.The most horrifying account that Peterson writes so vividly about is the genocide in Rwanda. How does a world ignore such atrocity? I cried often during the reading of this section. I can't imagine how any country could ignore the pleading of such a dying nation in such a beautiful part of the world. To read about a man living in a wall for months to avoid being murdered, a child hiding under her parents while they were hacked to death, and see pictures of streets lined with death is beyond understandable. This is where our billions in defense should have gone! I believe this book to be a must read for all humanity. From each horrible account something is learned. Africa is a beautiful country on the verge of catastrophe while the rest of the world ignores its pleas. From such anger, bitterness and hate comes furure generations of the same unless the world steps up with bravery and defends a peaceful solution. A billion dollars of understanding would go alot further in this country than the others we chose to toy with. Peterson has brought the injustices to life masterfully. This book NEEDS to be read by anyone who cares about a global existence and our future.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read Regarding Our Future & Our Past
Review: Peterson has written an excellent report on the atrocities that have taken place under our eyes in Africa. Most Americans know about Somalia from "Black Hawk Down" but Peterson reports from a different perspective and brings new light to an old meaning. He reports on what both the UN and the US did wrong while on a "peace mission." I would have hoped we would have learned our lesson but some aspects Peterson describes ring much too true for our involvement in Iraq as well. The most horrifying account that Peterson writes so vividly about is the genocide in Rwanda. How does a world ignore such atrocity? I cried often during the reading of this section. I can't imagine how any country could ignore the pleading of such a dying nation in such a beautiful part of the world. To read about a man living in a wall for months to avoid being murdered, a child hiding under her parents while they were hacked to death, and see pictures of streets lined with death is beyond understandable. This is where our billions in defense should have gone! I believe this book to be a must read for all humanity. From each horrible account something is learned. Africa is a beautiful country on the verge of catastrophe while the rest of the world ignores its pleas. From such anger, bitterness and hate comes furure generations of the same unless the world steps up with bravery and defends a peaceful solution. A billion dollars of understanding would go alot further in this country than the others we chose to toy with. Peterson has brought the injustices to life masterfully. This book NEEDS to be read by anyone who cares about a global existence and our future.
Rating: 
Summary: The Dark side of humanity on the Dark
Review: Scott Peterson has written a first hand reporter's account of his experiences in Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda. It is a compelling read for all interested in war, ethnic conflict, genocide and international relations. If you are interested in only one of the three debacles, the book is broken into three sections that make it easy to focus on, say, Sudan, and ignore the other two. Finally, the book includes three maps, one of each region, that are helpful in reading the text. The most detailed section (fully half the book) focuses on Somalia. Other books and monographs have given a good view of the difficulties of United Nations mandated versus authorized Peace Operations, and of the tactical details of various battles (Mark Bowden's "Blackhawk Down.") The advantage of Peterson's work is that it is fresh, almost unedited, and thus a grisly look at war, tribalism, ethnic conflict, scarce resource competition and the inability of international will to alter these stark realities. The last chapter "Back to Zero" is a damning indictment of President Clinton his foreign policy, especially Presidential Decision Directive 25. The most salient lesson in all the revealed savagery of Somalia, though, is in the story of British Colonel "Somali" Smith-after a camel-seizing raid in 1947, he left the country for several years. When he returned in 1967, he was stabbed to death the day after his arrival by the son of one of the men killed in the 1947 raid. It seems Somalis DO bear a grudge a long time-regardless of where the problem originated, Americans would do well to remember this before returning to Mogadishu. The second part of the book tries in some detail to come to grips with the endless bloodletting of Sudan's civil war between (alleged) Christians and Muslims. This section is not as well written as the first, and the reader begins to tire of one dusty corpse and massacre after another, but Peterson makes his point. The would be "solver" of this religious quagmire, fueled by poverty and generational cycles of violence, will have untied a modern Gordian Knot. Peterson gives a quick overview of the history of Sudan, the tides of fortune sweeping back and forth, raiding for slaves, attacking Sufism, a mystical sub sect of Islam, and always, always fighting for control of the Nile. In some ways, then, nothing has changed, only the technologies for spreading propaganda and death. A new twist to which Peterson pays particular attention, and wrestles with well, is the dilemma of aid organizations. If you are providing aid that "others may live" many of them shall live to fight, and either live some more, or die at the hands of others. Second, your very aid shall become a resource worth fighting over, so your provision of sustenance is actually an incentive TO fight, rather than not. The last part of the book focuses on the carnage of Rwanda. Peterson jumps into the fray of whether or not a "Peace Operations force" could have averted the carnage, or at least slowed it down. Peterson sides with Monsieur Prunier, a French scholar who believes that as few as 20 armored vehicles would have made the difference. I think this understates the calculated assault, led by a military sometimes called "the Prussians of Africa." I think it would have taken tens of thousands of soldiers, with helicopters and fixed wing transports, lots of communications gear and fierce political resolve to staunch the flow of blood here. All in all, a good "raw" book, well worth the read, but by no means a definitive scholarly work on the central African swamp of the last 20 years.
Rating:
Summary: The Dark side of humanity on the Dark
Review: Scott Peterson’s Me Against My Brother is about the horrors of African war. Peterson has covered it as a journalist for years, and is no fan of it. In fact, he is unrelentingly negative. For instance, in his largest section, on the UN intervention in Somalia, Western governmental powers (including the UN) can do no right. When they ignore Somali famine, Peterson reviles them. When they intervene after the worst of the famine is over, again Peterson reviles them. When they fail to make a strong show of force and disarm the warlords, Peterson reviles them. When they do make a strong show of force by attempting to disarm powerful warlord Mohamed Aidid – which leads to immediate street violence that leaves 25 Pakistani UN soldiers dead – again Peterson reviles them. When they appease Aidid, Peterson reviles them; when they fight him, Peterson reviles them. Peterson says the UN did not understand the Somali culture of violence and made themselves look foolish and weak, but when the UN struck back with an helicopter assault against key Aidid personnel, Peterson is horrified that the UN might do such a violent thing. It’s not that I disagreed with most of what Peterson writes. He points out errors and foibles with a practiced eye and a passionate pen, and his efforts have convinced me that there may have been no way to effectively intervene in Somalia – that, indeed, every move the UN made or could have made was a terrible error. But he seems to have no point; he just lashes out in all directions, as if there’s a simple answer he is not telling us and it is everybody’s fault for not getting it. 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.
Rating:
Summary: Peterson leads with his heart
Review: Scott Peterson’s Me Against My Brother is about the horrors of African war. Peterson has covered it as a journalist for years, and is no fan of it. In fact, he is unrelentingly negative. For instance, in his largest section, on the UN intervention in Somalia, Western governmental powers (including the UN) can do no right. When they ignore Somali famine, Peterson reviles them. When they intervene after the worst of the famine is over, again Peterson reviles them. When they fail to make a strong show of force and disarm the warlords, Peterson reviles them. When they do make a strong show of force by attempting to disarm powerful warlord Mohamed Aidid – which leads to immediate street violence that leaves 25 Pakistani UN soldiers dead – again Peterson reviles them. When they appease Aidid, Peterson reviles them; when they fight him, Peterson reviles them. Peterson says the UN did not understand the Somali culture of violence and made themselves look foolish and weak, but when the UN struck back with an helicopter assault against key Aidid personnel, Peterson is horrified that the UN might do such a violent thing. It’s not that I disagreed with most of what Peterson writes. He points out errors and foibles with a practiced eye and a passionate pen, and his efforts have convinced me that there may have been no way to effectively intervene in Somalia – that, indeed, every move the UN made or could have made was a terrible error. But he seems to have no point; he just lashes out in all directions, as if there’s a simple answer he is not telling us and it is everybody’s fault for not getting it. 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Pulse
Review: The author falls squarely into the category of those foreigners who perceive Mogadishu (and everything that happens there) as Somalia - big mistake. Generally Peterson's angle praises the ICRC, bashes the UN, but then moves to exonerate UNOSOM by completely trashing the US involvement (intelligence, initiatives and actions) within UNITAF and UNOSOM I & II. From my few years in Somalia during the same time, that all seems quite fair. The author writes well - but his sources are not very broad (despite the many footnotes which at first give the impression of good research)and so he tends to look at his own navel a bit too much. Somalia was and is so much more than the manifestations of an amazing society at its capital. But, despite himself, Peterson does seem to have encountered something of the spirit of Somalia and he does recognize that Somalis stand very much on their own pedestal. Not a bad read.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting point of view of a difficult situation
Review: This book is an interesting exploration of the horrible events in Africa, although it relates amazing circumstances with a dispassionate and detached perspective. Peterson does beneft from the value of 20/20 hindsight joining in the anti-military rhetoric, using questionable sources as times to validate his perspective. Despite factual inaccuracies and the hard-to-justify moral blame he puts on the United Nations (over African warlords), it is, regardless, a first hand account of events the world would rather forget.
Rating:
Summary: Me Against My Brother
Review: This book was awesome. Peterson brings to life the harrowing history of life in Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda. I value this book because told through the eyes of a war correspondent the reader gets a glimpse of what these countries are really like and the politics involved in running them. This book also increased my knowledge of foreign affairs in these countries and what humanitarian intervention is all about. The last I heard Peterson was covering Russia-I can not wait until he brings out another book; I am sure it will be as riveting as this one. I highly recommend this book to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: revealing
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Brutality galore
Review: This books offers a very detailed description of the political reasons behind the wars in Somalia and Sudan. It is full of brutal descriptions of the horrors of the wars with pictures to make a point. The reason why I did not give more than three starts to this book is that it is very subjective. He takes sides. The author harshly critizices the U.S. and U.N. involment in the Somalian civil war, but at the same time he is angry for the lack of involvement in Sudan and Rwanda. It offers good descriptions what happens to international aid when it reaches the war torn countries.
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