Terrorized and recruited by the army, by rebel groups, and by private militias, a generation of Liberian kids know little but inhuman cruelty and slaughter. Will the arrival of peacekeeping forces and the departure of President Charles Taylor end the violence that has raged since 1989, when Taylor began his war on the corrupt, U.S.-backed Doe regime? In a country where diamond traffickers, arms dealers, and al-Qaeda all have profited from the mayhem, the author witnesses a deadly attack on thousands of civilians seeking refuge in a compound next to the American Embassy.