The author wrote for Newsweek as their Middle Eastern correspondent during the 1980s. Prior to that assignment he wrote on Latin America, the subject of his first book With the Contras.
As one would imagine the episodic chapters center on expats working in the Middle East, mostly in the oil business. Each chapter centers on a country; Libya, Oman, the gulf states, and Iran. The reporting in this book illuminated a time period that I didn't know too much about. For example, some of the chapters touch on the Iran-Iraq War. A war that I, and I think most Americans, know next to nothing about. I had no clue that so many civilian mariners died during the naval battles that raged between the two countries, not to mention the lives and ships lost to mines.
The last chapter is the best. Dickey writes about an Iranian passenger jet, flying in Iranian airspace, that was shot down by a missile fired from a US warship in the Gulf. The plane had a civilian beacon and was in regular communication with air traffic controllers.
After repeated requests for a visa, Dickey is conveniently granted entry to interview the family members of the victims. He comments that the Iranians were not angry at him personally or the American people in general. The author wonders aloud if Americans could or would make the same distinction if put in the same position.
A few months after the plane crash, there was another, but this one was over Lockerbie, Scotland. Gaddafi claimed responsibility, but there is a good chance that the Iranian government was involved or at least encouraged Gaddafi. The screw ups of our government DO consequences for civilians. ( )

Arabia