The #1 New York Times-bestselling author who “never fails to find the absurd” addresses everything from airport security to the Iraq War (The New York Times Book Review).

To unravel the mysteries of war, P.J. O’Rourke first visits Kosovo. (“Wherever there's injustice, oppression, and suffering, America will show up six months later and bomb the country next to where it's happening.”) He travels to Israel at the outbreak of the intifada. He flies to Egypt in the wake of the 9/11 terrorists' attacks. and contemplates bygone lunacies. (“Why are the people in the Middle East so crazy? Here, at the pyramids, was an answer from the earliest days of civilization: People have always been crazy.”) He covers the demonstrations and the denunciations of war. Finally he arrives in Baghdad with the U.S. Army, and enters one of Saddam's palaces. (“If a reason for invading Iraq was needed, felony interior decorating would have sufficed.”) With this collection, P.J. O’Rourke once again demonstrates that he is “an acerbic master of gonzo journalism and one of America’s most hilarious and provocative writers” (Time).