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A War of Choice: Honour, Hubris and Sacrifice

A War of Choice: Honour, Hubris and Sacrifice

The British in Iraq

Summary

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

Reviews

  • Sound, vivid and enhanced by his modesty - there is no "as the bullets flew around my head" here. He simply describes in cool prose how Britain's share in the western allies' initial 2003 success in deposing Saddam Hussein and occupying Iraq tuned into a nightmare struggle against insurgency
    Max Hastings, Sunday Times

About the author

Jack Fairweather

Jack Fairweather is an award-winning and bestselling British writer and journalist. His last book The Volunteer won the Costa Book Prize and was a #1 Sunday Times bestseller, hailed as a modern classic and compared to Schindler’s List. He splits his time between the UK and Vermont.
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