A war selfie: The Unravelling, by Emma Sky

Review: Another week, another ‘why didn’t anyone listen to me?’ book about Iraq, writes Anakana Schofield

Updated: Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 10:33
Anakana Schofield
Iraq and hard place: Emma Sky walks with Gen Ray Odierno and Stryker brigade soldiers through the Iraqi town of Khalis. Photograph: SPC Kimberly Millett/US army

Iraq and hard place: Emma Sky walks with Gen Ray Odierno and Stryker brigade soldiers through the Iraqi town of Khalis. Photograph: SPC Kimberly Millett/US army

It has long been accepted that more planning went into the average Saturday-morning omelette than what would happen in Iraq once “democracy” had been imposed.

A publishing genre has recently emerged to inform us what went wrong in Iraq and Afghanistan. The books keep on coming, with variable results. The more privileged narrative hovers around these points: Here I am. I was there. Look what I did. It was terrible. Why didn’t anyone listen to me? There you go. I’m off home to a comfy job (as to write such an account you don’t usually return home in a box). Emma Sky’s The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq is the latest such book.

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