Shock and War: Iraq 20 Years On
4.6/5
Critic Rating
"Essential listening..." Why the US and UK went to war in Iraq and its legacy. Gordon Corera investigates.Twenty years ago a US-led coalition invaded Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein. The UK was America's main partner. For many it remains a war based on a lie. So why did it happen? Why was Washington so fixed on regime change in Iraq? And why did the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, commit the UK to taking part? The BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera seeks to find new answers to why the war happened and what it meant. Gordon speaks to those...
Critic Reviews
Score: 4
James Marriot • The Times UK • Mar 24, 2023
"...a remarkable reconstruction of war and its aftermath...Gordon Corera’s fascinating new BBC Sounds podcast about the war...Salman’s story is just one piece of the remarkable panorama of the war Corera has assembled through an extraordinary range of interviews. Especially interesting are Richard Dearlove and Eliza Manningham-Buller, who were the heads of MI6 and MI5 respectively at the time of the invasion. Impressively, Corera even gets an interview with Tony Blair, who sounds somewhat hoarse and strangulated in his attempts to justify what happened."
Score: 4.9
Patricia Nicol • The Times UK • Mar 19, 2023
"...sharply conveyed in the gripping first episode...This series is a good example of the level of access the BBC can still command. Interviewing grandees, Corera can be charming and persuasive but also terrier-like."
Score: 5
Miranda Sawyer • The Guardian • Mar 18, 2023
"...an extremely interesting series...BBC’s security correspondent, the excellent Gordon Corera, gets to grips with how and why the George W Bush/Tony Blair-sanctioned conflict actually came about. This is a great series, sober, truthful, brilliantly researched, packed with I-was-there interviews. Corera, as you would expect, asks the right questions. Essential listening."
