“Insurgencies are easy to make and hard to stop. Only a few ingredients need to combine to create an insurgency; like oxygen and fire, they're very common and mix all too often. The recipe is, simply, a legitimate grievance against a state, a state that refuses to compromise, a quorum of angry people, and access to weapons.”

American journalist and author

Richard Engel is an American journalist and author, best known as the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News. He was appointed to that role in 2008, after working as the network’s Middle East correspondent and Beirut bureau chief. Before joining NBC in 2003, Engel covered the opening of the Iraq War for ABC News as a freelance reporter based in Baghdad. His work has focused on international reporting, especially the Middle East and major conflict zones.