I’ve just finished Defeat: Why They Lost Iraq, by Jonathan Steele; a truly disturbing and thought provoking book. Jonathan Steele writes for the Guardian and while he writes in a very accessible style it all felt a bit right-on at first. But the facts and accounts he gathers steadily pile up into a pretty damning case. It also gave me a much clearer understanding of recent Iraqi history and politics, while also opening my eyes to the affect of Western policies.
While I’m on the subject, Kim Sengupta’s article ‘Leaving Baghdad ’ provides a very grim, but, in my view, an utterly essential account of life in Baghdad during 2006.
