The British In Iraq (merged thread)

**davidbfpo** · 04-14-2019

Patrick Porter is an Australian-born academic who has taught in the UK for many years, but retains the directness we often associate with being an Australian. He summarises his book here:https://www.historytoday.com/archive...tain%E2%80%99s

I have his book awaiting attention, so one day will add my own comments here in the books read thread.

Via MWI a US author's review; it starts with:

One doesn’t read Patrick Porter’s new book, so much as contend with it. At 232 pages, Blunder: Britain’s War in Iraq is a surprisingly short text yet a remarkably layered one. Equal parts engaging and grinding, Porter navigates the path to war in London during 2002 and early 2003 with the rigor of a forensic coroner reconstructing a murder. Rather than a cadaver, though, his subject is the intellectual underpinnings that played a role in pre-war debates on both sides of the Atlantic and were essential to the case for invasion presented to the British public by the government of Tony Blair. Blunder doesn’t trade in platitudes or indulge in conspiratorial fantasies but rather lays bare the very real and—in the abstract—noble ideas that fed into the most consequential and destructive war of this century.

Link:https://mwi.usma.edu/britains-blunder-united-kingdom-marched-war-iraq/

**JWing** · 04-16-2019

Book review of the executive summary of the Chilcot Report

**davidbfpo** · 04-16-2019

Cheers Joel for the book review. I do note 'England' is used throughout the review, when it was the UK and that is only used at the end. All parts of the UK were lied to and the majority agreed with the policy decisions - that is my recollection from public opinion polling.

There are still aspects of the British involvement in Iraq that remain unexplained. It was mooted when Tony Blair was replaced by Gordon Brown (in June 2007), who had been his No.2 at HM Treasury, that the UK should exit Iraq. This was to avoid the electoral impact of an unpopular war in Labour's traditional areas of support where there was either a majority or large minority of Muslim voters - which was confined to the bigger cities. In 2010 Labour was defeated in a General Election, losing ninety-one seats.