Road to Baghdad: Behind Enemy Lines: The Adventures of an American Soldier in the Gulf War

About this book

In 1990 U.S. Army Major Martin Stanton was a military advisor stationed in Saudi Arabia. Encouraged by the Army to broaden his cultural horizons and assured by the U.S. embassy that Kuwait was perfectly safe Stanton took off for a long weekend there. Roused by gunshots his first night in Kuwait City Stanton looked out the window and discovered he was in the middle of a full-scale invasion. Iraqs Gulf War had begunand in the Kuwait City Sheraton overlooking the entire western part of town the United States had inadvertabtly encouraged an Army officer to go "behing enemy lines". As fighting continued and bullets hit the hotels facade Stanton began phoning in intelligence reports to his superiors. He noted the arrival of the first tanks and their strategic deploymentto places with the most shadeas well as the Sheratons transition from hotel to Iraqi military headquarters. From the top floor of the hotel Stanton would scour the surrounding streets with his binoculars then descend to the lobby where hed lounge around the door of the Iraqi command posts map roomconveniently converted from the Sheratons conference roomgleaning what he could and reporting back intelligence. Without a doubt the Pentagon had unwittingly scored a major coup. Yet Stantons prime position was short lived. Rounded up by the enemy he would spend the next four months in Iraq as one of Saddams guests also known as human shieldsas the western hostages were shifted among various strategic facilities: chemical weapons factories oil refineries and power plants. Despite his dire circumstance Stanton nevertheless strove at all times to do his duty to the best of his ability by continually taking notes and looking for ways to smuggle out information. In his role as a roving human shield Stanton saw more of Iraq than he ever wanted to. Fortunately he was released in time to fight the Gulf War with his Saudi unit. With the same insight and intelligence evident in his first book Somalia on $5 a Day Martin Stanton has produced another fascinating account that offers readers a rare glimpse of a different time in the Middle East when Saddam Hussein was at the height of his power and ambition and when the U.S. was simply trying to repel an invader. From the Hardcover edition.