Esprit de Corps

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.

In 1996, he co-authored the bestseller Tarnished Brass: Crime and Corruption in the Canadian Military. After being held hostage for 5 days in Iraq, Taylor returned to the country, and since then has resumed his role as an unembedded war correspondent in Afghanistan. In recognition of his ability to go beyond the jingoism of mainstream media, the Globe and Mail has dubbed him the “voice of the grunts.” 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.

“Unembedded is the mid-life autobiography of a toy-soldier-playing boy turned real soldier, of a soldier turned journalist, or a fervent admirer of the military turned its acerbic critic, of a proud Canadian turned whistle blower on his own armed forces. It’s a riveting book which can be read at two levels: as a personal account of a man’s life and as a journalistic account of life on the other side of the trenches. …Regardless of our feelings about all things military, we should read Unembedded, because at the end of the day Taylor had the courage to trade his heavy machine gun for a light but powerful quill.”

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