Defeat: Losing Iraq and the Future of the Middle East

by Jonathan Steele

Overview

As the dreadful reality of the coalition's defeat in Iraq begins to sink in, one question dominates Washington and London: Why? In this controversial new book, Jonathan Steele provides a stark and arresting answer: Bush and Blair were defeated from the day they decided to occupy the country. Steele describes the centuries of humiliation that have scarred the Iraqi national psyche, creating a powerful and deeply felt nationalism and spreading cultural landmines along the road to winning Baghdad. Steele shows for the first time how the invasion and occupation were perceived by ordinary Iraqis, whose feelings and experiences were completely ignored by Western policymakers. The result of such arrogance, Steele demonstrates, was a failure that will forever resonate with such dark chapters of American and British history as the Vietnam War and the Suez Canal crisis. Blending vivid reportage, informed analysis, and sweeping historical narrative, Defeat is the definitive post–mortem on this pivotal catastrophe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781582434797
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	04/21/2009
Edition description:	First Trade Paper Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Steele is a columnist for The Guardian, as well as a foreign correspondent and author. Since 9/11 he has reported from Afghanistan and Iraq as well as on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Table of Contents

Introduction 5

I Iraq Without Iraqis 11

II Arab Anguish 29

III Creating Resistance: The Sunnis 53

IV Creating Resistance: The Shias 75

V Leave in Time or Get Bogged Down 113

VI Creating Resistance: Humiliation and Death 141

VII Britain and Basra 163

VIII Sectarian Conflict: Who's to Blame? 197

IX The Farce of Sovereignty 231

Conclusion 249

Epilogue 259

Notes 273

Bibliography 289

Index 297

Editorial Reviews

"Critics of the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq often begin with the faulty (or deliberately skewed) intelligence concerning weapons of mass destruction. Even those politicians who continue to support the venture are willing to criticize the military and political mistakes that followed the initial thrust into Iraq. Steele, a senior correspondent for the Guardian, offers a deeper and more damning indictment. He asserts that the effort was preordained to fail, doomed by the twin sins of ignorance and arrogance. At the core of these sins was the inability of policy makers to comprehend that even the best–intentioned and "benign" occupation of a foreign nation usually means humiliation for the occupied and will trigger eventual resistance. Steele suggests that a rapid overthrow of Hussein followed by a rapid withdrawal of American and British forces could have resulted in a successful, or at least a tolerable, outcome. Instead, the invaders chose to "rebuild" Iraqi institutions, resulting in a prolonged stay. Although some of Steele's criticisms may be unfair, he presents a well–argued work demanding serious consideration."—Jay Freeman,Booklist

From the Publisher

America's mistakes have been given an extensive airing in many excellent books…In Defeat, British journalist Jonathan Steele has managed something that might have been deemed beyond reach: He has asked the question in a new and interesting way. In short, he wonders: Could we have ever gotten this right?…It is an understated book, informed by Steele's wide reading in Iraqi history and his reporting over the course of eight stints of a month or more in Iraq between the invasion and 2007. What Steele has done is the important work of asking Iraqis how they felt when their loved ones were mistakenly killed at checkpoints or in crossfire, and what it was like to have a child mistakenly locked up for weeks. He has picked up on the small but vital things…
—The Washington Post

Daniel Benjamin