I should like to thank my colleagues at The Daily Telegraph with whom I covered the Iraq War on a daily basis during March and April 2003, particularly Charles Moore, then the Editor, Michael Smith, the Defence Correspondent, Alec Russell, the Foreign Editor, Con Coughlin and Kate Baden, my secretary. I was encouraged to undertake this book by my editor at Hutchinson, Anthony Whittome. I was at first unwilling to do so because of the difficulties I foresaw but he predicted that they would dissolve. He was right and I am glad that he persuaded me to take up what has proved to be an unusually interesting commission.
I am also grateful to Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defense, whom I twice interviewed in his office at the Pentagon. He also made it possible for me to interview General Tommy Franks, CENTCOM Commander, immediately after the war was over. I am extremely grateful to General Franks for his openness. I also received valuable help from Colonel Christopher Vernon, Colonel Michael Dewar and Lt-Colonel Richard Hoare, all of the British army.
I should also like to thank my American editor, Ashbel Green at Knopf, my literary agent, Anthony Sheil and my irreplaceable assistant, Lindsey Wood. Without her ability to meet very tight deadlines the book could not have been produced.
Finally, my love and thanks to my children, Lucy, Tom, Rose and Matthew, and to my darling wife, Susanne.
Kilmington Manor,
Wiltshire,
15 March 2004