What Are We Doing in Afghanistan?

Veteran war correspondent, Scott Taylor, delivered a talk on his latest book, “Unembedded: Two Decades of Maverick War Reporting” in the Riverview Room, Jenkins Hall, on Tuesday, April 14th. As the publisher and editor of Esprit de Corps magazine, author of the best-selling book, Tarnished Brass and a frequent military analyst in the Canadian media, Taylor delivered a timely and piercingly frank point of view of his experiences reporting from the world’s areas of conflict.

About the Book: In September 2004, veteran Canadian journalist Scott Taylor was taken hostage in northern Iraq. While awaiting execution by beheading, he reflected on the events that had brought him to a torture chamber in a remote Iraqi village. Taylor's recounting in Unembedded includes his experiences as a Canadian Forces infantryman, and as a front-line reporter investigating military affairs for the military magazine Esprit de Corps. His quest to see "the other side" has taken him to Africa and the former Yugoslavia, and to Saddam Hussein's Iraq in twenty-one trips before, during and after the U.S.-led invasion. With searing criticism, Taylor exposes the deceit of the politicians and media cheerleaders who are ultimately responsible for waging the senseless wars that cause so much needless suffering for innocent people.

About the Author: A former professional soldier, Scott Taylor has been editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps since 1988. Throughout the mid-1990s, his magazine exposed a number of top-level cover-ups and scandals while defending the rights of the rank and file soldiers. Since the inception of Esprit de Corps, he has logged over one million air miles as a war correspondent reporting from such global hot spots as the Persian Gulf, Cambodia, Western Sahara, Croatia, Bosnia, Iraq, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan. In March 2003, during his last trip prior to the United States’ intervention, Scott Taylor was asked to leave Iraq for fear of his being a spy for the Israeli Mossad. Following the swift US victory, Scott returned frequently to Iraq to view first-hand the ongoing humanitarian crisis plaguing this still embattled country. Then, for five harrowing days in September 2004, he experienced the rare occasion when "getting the story becomes the story." Scott regularly appears in the Canadian media as a military analyst, and is the recipient of the 1996 Quill Award for outstanding work in the field of Canadian communications. That same year, he also won the Alexander MacKenzie Award for journalistic excellence. A weekly columnist for the Halifax Chronicle-Herald,he is also a columnist for the Osprey newspaper chain and has contributed to the Ottawa Citizen, Maclean’s magazine, the Globe and Mail, Toronto Sun, Reader’s Digest, and the Global television network as well as several international publications. Scott Taylor is the author of five best-selling books including Tarnished Brass: Crime and Corruption in the Canadian Military. He lives in Ottawa, Ontario.