Defeat

Washington and London are still asking how the Coalition ended up losing in Iraq. Journalist Jonathan Steele, a prize-winning reporter, offers a blunt and contested answer: the Bush and Blair governments were beaten the moment they chose to occupy the country. He argues that Iraq had already had its fill of foreign armies, and that no occupying force was ever going to be welcomed there.

Steele traces the centuries of humiliation that have shaped the Iraqi national psyche and produced a strong, deeply felt nationalism. Drawing on his unusual access to senior Western policymakers, he examines the decisions of the key figures involved in the war.