How We Cover War and Uncover History

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When Briton Hadden and Henry Luce invented the newsmagazine in 1923, they had the brash idea that TIME would "serve the modern necessity of keeping people informed." Hadden and Luce were clearly on to something: today TIME is by far the world's largest newsmagazine, with more than 5 million subscribers. Our mission has also evolved with the times, so every week we try to offer readers an unparalleled mix of reporting, analysis, photography and graphics, all designed to help you better understand an increasingly complex world.

We've been planning for the start of Gulf War II for months, so when the bombing began last week, we had more than two dozen journalists in the region. As you will see in the following pages, our colleagues very quickly witnessed the grimness of war. Last Saturday in northern Iraq, Michael Ware and photographer Kate Brooks were reporting on al-Qaeda-linked guerrillas when a suicide bomber detonated a taxi, killing five people, including an Australian cameraman. Early Sunday, Jim Lacey was sleeping in his tent in Camp Pennsylvania, in northern Kuwait, when he suddenly heard loud bangs. Two grenades had exploded 10 yards away, in the tents housing officers of the 101st Airborne. More than a dozen were wounded, and at least one was killed. The detained suspect: an American soldier. Photographer Benjamin Lowy captured the chaos on film.

As Baghdad was pounded, photographers James Nachtwey, Yuri Kozyrev and Patrick Robert stayed in the Palestine Hotel recording the event and the aftermath for the magazine even as reporter Saad Hattar attempted to gauge the regime's longevity--and was expelled for his trouble.

Paul Quinn-Judge was in the Kurdish town of Sulaymaniyah planning the most fruitful way to enter Iraqi territory if and when the regime collapses. And to the west, in Arbil, Joshua Kucera, gas mask at the ready, monitored the machinations of Kurdish nationalists and the Iraqi opposition who are waiting for Saddam's demise.

In the south, Alex Perry and photographer Christopher Morris traveled with a combat unit of the 3rd Infantry Division. Simon Robinson and photographer Robert Nickelsberg camped outside Basra with the 1st Marines Division. In the gulf, Meenakshi Ganguly watched bombers take off from the deck of the U.S.S. Constellation for runs at the Iraqi mainland. Brian Bennett, with the 332nd Expeditionary Wing, monitored troop movements from an air base south of the Iraqi border. Sally Donnelly was in Qatar to cover General Tommy Franks, while Terry McCarthy waited in Kuwait to join the second wave heading for Baghdad.