Honour, Hubris and Sacrifice: the British in Iraq

Jack Fairweather  - Vintage 2012

ISBN  978 0 099 54233 9

The warrior memoirs from the Gulf Wars and the Iraqi occupation have been on the bookshelves for a couple of years. Now comes the more than complementary volume: A War of Choice tells the back story of some of those very bitter battles. But it is a lot more than that. It explains how the British Government sleepwalked, under the command of T Blair, into not one war , but two.  Obviously the political drama is interwoven with the ruminations  of senior military figures.

It will not surprise readers that no politician emerges from this narrative smelling sweet. More surprising is that few senior officers above the rank of Colonel emerge blameless. There is the occasional exception, such as Nick Henderson, a battle group commander who resigned his commission (in protest at his troops having to continue to patrol Basra in Snatch Land Rovers).