David B – illustratör

Filiu and David B. draw striking parallels between ancient and contemporary political history in this look at the US-Middle East conflict. The reader is transported to the pirate-choked Mediterranean sea, where Christians and Muslims continue the crusades, only this time on water. As the centuries pass, the traditional victims of the Muslim pirates--the British, French, and Spanish--all become empire-building powers whose sights lie beyond the Mediterranean.

In the third volume of their graphic history of US and Middle East relations, Jean-Pierre Filiu and David B. cover the tumultuous period that began with Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and ended with Obama’s decision, in 2013, not to intervene in Syria.Taking in the First Gulf War, the rise of al-Qaeda, the military response to the September 11 attacks and the present conflict in Syria, Best of Enemies: Part Three is propelled by a clash between four US presidents and their Middle Eastern antagonists: on the one hand, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama; on the other, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Bashar al-Assad.Covering thirty years of conflict and diplomacy, Best of Enemies: Part Three is a breezy and engaging guide to the events that shaped our current politics, from the rise of populism and the so-called Islamic State to the global refugee crisis.