Claire: How much do you think the divided attention between Iraq and Afghanistan made it even harder to produce any kind of good in either country? Claire: There was no urgency. It's hubris. America thought this is our unipolar moment. We are the greatest bar in the world. Britain must always go with America because that's the only thing that makes us important. I mean that's Britain's foreign policy really. Rainnog for you watching how the occupation was was playing out.
What happened in Iraq once the Americans and the British arrived? Why was the transfer of power a far from smooth operation? And what else went wrong in what should have been the mission for liberation?
In the second episode of this series Iraq: Legacy of War, brought to you by Intelligence Squared, host Manveen Rana, is joined again by Renad Mansour, director of the Iraq Initiative at Chatham House; and Clare Short, who was Secretary of State for International Development from 1997 to 2003.
To listen to the whole series now please subscribe via Intelligence Squared Premium on Apple Podcasts or here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more.
This series was produced by Farah Jassat and Catharine Hughes, with editing and artwork from Catharine Hughes. Music is by Lesfm. Excerpts featured in this episode are from BBC news.
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