EP 71: War Correspondent Michael Ware on the War in Iraq & the Birth of ISIS

My guest today is Australian journalist Michael Ware. He’s a former Bagdad Bureau chief for Time Magazine and war correspondent for CNN. In 2003 Michael Ware arrived in Baghdad as a novice reporter on a three-week assignment to cover the invasion of Iraq. He left seven years later, having gained unprecedented access to the Iraqi insurgency and American troops and scarred by having seen the unimaginable brutality of the group that eventually became ISIS. Now his story is told in a new documentary called ONLY THE DEAD SEE THE END OF THE WAR that airs Monday, March 28, at 9PM Eastern on HBO.

On the podcast, Michael Ware talks about the time he was kidnapped and nearly beheaded by Al Qaeda in Iraq and he reveals how he became in his own words “obsessed” with the leader of that group Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. He also talks about being embedded with U.S. marines during the grueling battle of Falluja and having a front row seat for the birth of the modern day terrorist nation state called ISIS.

If you enjoyed this episode, then you can watch Michael Ware's film ONLY THE DEAD SEE THE END OF THE WAR tonight, Monday, March 28, at 9PM Eastern on HBO. Or you can view it with a subscription to HBO NOW or HBO GO.

Click here to download this episode on iTunes.