Martyrs' Day

Michael Kelly is an acute and entertaining witness. He traveled through much of the Middle East during and after the Gulf War, watching the bombs fall on Baghdad and waiting for Scuds in Tel Aviv, inspecting the gold bathroom fixtures installed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the emir's temporary palace in Kuwait City and dining with Kurdish chieftains in remote mountain camps in northern Iran. When the ground war began, Kelly rented a four-wheel-drive Nissan Safari, borrowed some camouflage pants and gas-proof rubber gloves, and set off across the desert, where he was mistaken for an…