Bad Days In Basra

Product Description

The phonecall came from out of the blue, just when Sir Hilary Synnott was looking forward to retirement after helping steer India & 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 & 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 & 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, & 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 & motivations of key characters such as Bremer himself, US commander General David Petraeus & the then UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw. It provides an entertaining & witty portrait of the absurdities of life inside the occupying coalition, a devastating critique of CPA policies & controversial revelations about the real relationship between the two occupying powers, Britain & America.