READING: Hider, The Spiders of Allah

James Hider
The Spiders of Allah: Travels of an Unbeliever on the Frontline of Holy War
2009

The first Gulf II non-fiction page turner I've read, by The Times' Middle East bureau chief. The action is relentless, and Hider's visual style of writing unfolds like an action movie.

Unlike Simpson and Bowen, Gulf II was Hider's first war so he comes unburdened by the weight of history and experience to describe many of the war's atrocities with fresh eyes.

His central thesis that Islam is a brutal, backward and superstitious religion (the book's title alludes to the Iraqis' belief that an army of huge shrieking spiders had been sent by Allah to cut down the invading troops) is inflammatory and has a ring of old Colonialism about it - but Hider offsets this by describing plenty more atrocities conducted in the name of secular/Christian warfare.

Low points include an army senior commander ordering a sniper to cut down an old man collecting sticks in case his bundle contained an RPG, and American troops storming Basra with Team America's 'America: Fuck Yeah!' blaring from tank speakers without a hint of irony.

Gulf II has yet to be given the full Apocalypse Now or Jarhead Hollywood treatment, but when they do the producers could do worse than tear through Hider's book for source material.

Where Coppola's fictional Vietnamese villagers died to the haunting sound of Wagner, Iraqis lost their lives with "lick my butt, and suck on my balls" still ringing in their ears.