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  • Published: 15 May 2011
  • ISBN: 9781409029700
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 448
Categories:

A War of Choice

The British in Iraq 2003-9



A compelling and authoritative first-hand portrayal of Britain's war in Iraq.


A gripping account of the moral and political challenges posed by the Iraq war from the Costa Award winning author of The Volunteer.
When Tony Blair plunged Britain into war he thought that, shortly thereafter, Iraq would emerge as a peaceful democracy. Instead the invasion sparked the worst foreign policy disaster since the Suez crisis in 1956.

A War of Choice is a compelling and authoritative portrayal of Britain's war in Iraq. At the outset, Blair insisted that Britain went to war to influence American decision-making. Based on over three hundred interviews, A War of Choice gives the inside story of Blair's war cabinet, Whitehall power struggles and intrigue at the White House, and traces the evolution of the special relationship, from the secret deals struck by Blair, to Brown's desperate bid to save his premiership, which brought already-strained relations with America to the verge of collapse.

A story of hubris and honour, betrayal and the ultimate sacrifice, A War of Choice provides powerful insight into one of Britain’s most controversial conflicts.

‘A timely work that offers a considered appraisal of what went wrong’ Times Literary Supplement

  • Published: 15 May 2011
  • ISBN: 9781409029700
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 448
Categories:

About the author

Jack Fairweather

Jack Fairweather is a British writer and former war reporter in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the author of A War of Choice, The Good War and The Volunteer. He splits his time between the UK and Vermont.

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Praise for A War of Choice

Jack Fairweather examines our less than glorious role

Sameer Rahim, Telegraph

Fairweather deftly combines history, analysis and reportage to give a rational and dispassionate account of Britain's war... While A War of Choice is by no means the first book about the war in Iraq, nor even about Britain in Iraq, it is surely one of the finest. It is a compelling and sober exploration of Britain's controversial foreign policy in the Middle East, and, most importantly, it is fantastically readable

Tom Begg, Sugar Street Review

It makes for one of the best histories of the aftermath of war, and a staggering story of the betrayal of everything it was fought for

Good Book Guide

Britain's campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have spawned a new generation of war correspondents as brave and fluent as any that went before, many of whom go on to write books. Jack Fairweather, who reported from Baghdad for The Daily Telegraph, has compiled his own account, which is sound, vivid and [...] simply describes in cool prose how Britain's share in the western allies' initial 2003 success in deposing Saddam Hussein and occupying Iraq turned into a nightmare struggle against insurgency

Max Hastings, Sunday Times

A well-written and comprehensive history of the war in Iraq from the British perspective, and a timely work that offers a considered appraisal of what went wrong

Eamonn Gearon, Times Literary Supplement

A brilliant summary of the British entanglement for the fourth time in that country...It should provide an ideal introduction to the forthcoming, and much delayed, report about British involvement in Iraq by the Chilcot committee.

Robert Fox, Evening Standard

The calamitous decision-making process that sent Britain into the "perfect storm" of fighting two wars on two fronts is brilliantly catalogued in Jack Fairweather's excellent book A War of Choice. Through more than 300 interviews, Fairweather, a former Daily Telegraph correspondent in Iraq, expertly dissects the lies, spin and appalling decision-making which led to the biggest British foreign policy disaster since the Suez Crisis

Sean Rayment, Daily Telegraph

Jack Fairweather, the accomplished correspondent of the Daily Telegraph for much of the Iraq venture, gives a brilliant summary of the British entanglement for the fourth time in that country in A War of Choice... It should provide an ideal introduction to the forthcoming, and much delayed, report about British involvement in Iraq by the Chilcot committee. That inquiry should finally lay bare who took the decisions for what, who knew what and at what time, and who should take responsibility. It won't do all that, we know already, because Sir John Chilcot himself has said he won't apportion blame. He should, and the fact he won't means we will have to rely on Jack Fairweather's pithy analysis for a long time ahead

Robert Fox, Evening Standard