The Iraq War by John Keegan, Key Porter Books, hardcover, 254 pages, $29.95 - illustrated with black and white photographs, maps of Iraq past and present, and the various battle formations

The title of the first chapter of John Keegan's new book, The Iraq War, describes in many ways how most people feel about it, including me. The chapter is called 'A Mysterious War'. And so it is for many reasons, not least because of the war's aftereffects that are far more devastating than the actual war. But Keegan's book really ends before the continual murderous events that are now strangulating the new Iraqi government, and the general Iraqi population, and at the same time frustrate the American-led coalition's efforts to rebuild the country. Keegan, even in the early stages of the war, saw elements that obviously mystified him.

"When reporting the war in The Daily Telegraph I frequently found myself writing that its events were 'mysterious'," Keegan writes. "It was a strange word for a military analyst to use in what should have been objective comment. Even in retrospect, however, I see no reason to look for another. The war was mysterious in almost every aspect."

The book, The Iraq War, is not only about the puzzling events that happened during and after the immediate end of this recent war, which pose so many questions for which at this time there are no answers. It is also an analysis of how Iraq came to . . .

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