Loved this book. Lots of interesting information to digest. This is a great read for anyone who loves to read about history. Very well written

This book provides detailed and compelling accounts of those who witnessed the war in Iraq which began in 2003. From the news coverage at the time, the situation looked dire but reading these accounts gives a true picture of the horror and devastation the 'war on terror' caused. A difficult but worthy read.

This tome gives creedence that never ending wars are wrong and will destroy lives in so many ways. The book gives an accurate depiction of what Iraq was before it was falsely targeted for the war on terrorism. There are sections that go into greater detail regarding the controversial use of military contractors in the name of "justice". This book needs to be incorporated into classroom settings in schools around the world to help individuals gain a better understanding of the world around them.

I did not realise that this book was a companion of sorts to the BBC documentary of the same name; highly informative, thorougly researched, and yet I would have enjoyed to have read more from the Iraqi people's perspective.

Covers recent Iraqi history from the topple of Saddam Hussein onwards. Retold through the combatants, civilians and US officials at the time, this book is one to make you sad and angry in equal measure.
You can see the US had no post-Saddam plan and it all quickly unravelled from there on.
At times reads like a thriller, particularly when the US forces are hunting Saddam.
A topical and very accessible piece of modern history. We can only hope lessons have been learnt, although sadly I fear not.

I really enjoyed this book. I admit to not having a lot of knowledge about Saddam Hussein and Iraq so this book was great in giving me more information about it although a lot of the writing was from Americans,I would have liked to have read more from Iraqi people, how the events affected them. Reading this made me angry and sad for many reasons mainly that there seemed to be no clear plan on what the Americans were going to do once they had achieved main objective of capturing Saddam Hussein. This definitely isn't a read it all in one sitting kind of book, there is so much information that I had to read it over a number of days but I am glad I got to read it,

I wanted to read this book which accompanied a recent BBC documentary. My reasons for wanting to read the book were because at the time of watching, I was feeling confused and overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information being imparted and wanted some clarity. What I particularly liked about this book was the informative backdrop and timeline to the Iraq War which started in 2003 - in the Preface and Introduction. Like most people my age I remember the attack on the Twin Towers and the demonising of Saddam Hussein by the US not long after (although even to the casual observer he was a murderous ruler). Along with many others I now feel I was manipulated into believing this war was unavoidable.
The first person recollections from Iraqi citizens, journalists, diplomats and US soldiers give a fascinating insight into the sheer horror of the war and the post war devastation on Iraq. Some of their stories are truly horrifying. I found these testimonies to be well balanced by the authors and even included an extremely pro Saddam supporter. Their voices are unanimous that this war should never have occurred and the ongoing consequences for both the people of Iraq and the rest of the world in terms of terrorist activity is hugely significant and long lasting. The fact that Iraqi people have lost faith in the electoral process is particularly sad bearing in mind what they’ve gone through to be part of a democratic voting system.
The only minor quibble I have is that I would have liked details of the contributors and their photos to be at the front of the book rather than the back, so I could visualise the person as I was reading.
This book covers an important part of recent history and is an absorbing though to be honest due to the subject matter difficult read. I highly recommend it.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Penguin/BBC Books for the arc in return for an honest review.

In his State of the Union address on January 29, 2002, US President George W. Bush first employed the phrase ‘axis of evil’ to describe Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. Through that speech, he called North Korea “A regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) while starving its citizens.” On Iran, he stated it “aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom." But his criticism goes mostly to Iraq about which he says “Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens, leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections, then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world." The context of this speech combating terrorism threatens the peace of the world, especially after 9/11 which happened the previous year. It escapes the fact the none of the terrorists involved in the 9/11 debacle were citizens of the three countries which Bush cited as ‘axis of evil’.

Saddam Hussein had been ruling Iraq with an iron grip ever since he assumed leadership in 1979 as the prominent leader of the Ba’ath Party, the secular political party aiming at a unified Arab state, as the second Ba’athist President ever since the Ba’athist took power in Iraq in 1968. His leadership was characterised by stability, amidst a country whose history had been split along sectarianism in the social, ethnic, religious, and economic fault lines. When the Bush administration decided to invade Iraq in 2003 in view of its assumed possession of weapons of mass destruction, it fails to recognise these dividing lines as an obstacle to building the country post-invasion. Militarily, it could be said that the mission was accomplished with the May 2003 declaration of ‘end of major combat operations, which then paved way for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to become the new governing body that leads the transition for the new Iraqi government. The problem was, it failed to address the most basic needs of the people who got dispossessed by the invasion such as clean water and electricity, then it got worsened by the power vacuum that the removal of Saddam from power has created.

Through this book, James Bluemel gives voices to so many different people who got entangled by the conflict in Iraq from 2003 until now. Oral history is an effective method to understand the roots of the unending conflict in the Middle East, and also to the rise of Islamic fundamentalist terrorist movements such as Al-Qaeda and Islamic States (ISIS) after the execution of Saddam. The mentality of the Bush administration at that time was “we gotta behead the snake, which was Saddam, and then everything else will take care by itself”. In this sense, the US government could be said as making a not deep enough assessment by rendering the issues simply as between ‘good’ and ‘bad’, as though eliminating the ‘bad’ will ensure that the whole apple will not get rotten. This was a mistake as grave as the American involvement in Vietnam in which they failed to take into account that most Vietnamese people at that time viewed the war effort more as a nationalist movement against foreign invaders rather than a fight in support of communist ideology. And this kind of narrative could only be told through the viewpoint of the ordinary people that James Bluemel interviewed in the course of writing this book.

This book is based on a 2020 British documentary directed by James Bluemel himself that was released in five episodes through BBC Two, with interviewees ranging from Iraqi citizens to US military personnel and international journalists involved with the affairs. This is my first time reading a book adaptation of a documentary using the form of oral history. To be honest, I got a bit curious and decided to watch the documentary itself after reading the book. While comparing both, the documentary got me more emotional with the sound effect and looking at the expression of the interviewees while making the statement, whereas the book provides me with more objective and detailed accounts of the tragedies in Iraq.

Both media are equally good and capture the raw voices of the people affected by the conflict, but it was as though something is missing from this book. To be fair, the book does not have the benefit of capturing facial expressions which might lead readers to assume that the interviewees provided their statements in a matter-of-fact way, which was my assumption prior to watching the documentary. In this sense, it could be said that James Bluemel’s background which is a television documentary maker has something to do more with the differing qualities of both media he used. The documentary is his 11th documentary according to his filmography, whereas the book is his firstly published. So we might say, as an author, James Bluemel is still in the process of maturing compared to, for example, Svetlana Alexievich in his prowess to capture raw emotional voices inside his book. But I would say, this is one of the best available materials to really understand what has been happening in Iraq and what is the best course of actions to address the roots of the conflict.