Bad Days in Basra
eBook - PDF

Bad Days in Basra

My Turbulent Time as Britain's Man in Southern Iraq

  1. 240 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Bad Days in Basra

My Turbulent Time as Britain's Man in Southern Iraq

About this book

The phonecall came from out of the blue, just when Sir Hilary Synnott was looking forward to retirement after helping steer India and Pakistan back from the verge of nuclear war. "It's about Iraq. We need a King of the South..."Bad Days in Basra" is the story of Synnott's time as Britain's most senior representative in Southern Iraq, trying to keep the region together as the rest of the country descended in to murderous violence. By turns wryly comic, revealing and heart-breaking, it offers a never seen before glimpse in to the high politics of the occupation. Shuttling between the gilded palaces of the Green Zone and the leaky outhouses which constituted Coalition HQ in Basra, Synnott had to negotiate his boss, Paul Bremer's brash indifference to what was going outside Baghdad, the indecisiveness of his London masters, and the brutal political realities of a country under occupation.Bearing witness for the first time to the chaotic fashion in which the coalition was run at the highest levels, Synnott's unique insider account is the most important primary source we yet have on how the South was lost.
It offers new insights in to the style and motivations of key characters such as Bremer himself, US commander General David Petraeus and the then UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw. It provides an entertaining and witty portrait of the absurdities of life inside the occupying coalition, a devastating critique of CPA policies and controversial revelations about the real relationship between the two occupying powers, Britain and America.

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Yes, you can access Bad Days in Basra by Hilary Synnott in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Diplomacy & Treaties. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Acknowledgements
  4. List of Plates
  5. Acronyms
  6. Prologue
  7. Map of Iraq
  8. Part One: The Assignment
  9. Part Two: Facts on the Ground
  10. Part Three: Efforts and Failures
  11. Epilogue
  12. Appendix One
  13. Appendix Two
  14. Appendix Three
  15. Selected Bibliography
  16. Index