Wake-up call for Iraqi war cheerleaders

Occupational Hazards, by Rory Stewart, Picador, €26.45.

For anyone who supported the invasion of Iraq, reading this book is like being doused with a bucket of cold water. It is the diary of a young diplomat who travelled to Baghdad convinced that the west’s intervention would be just as successful as it had been in Bosnia.

It ends in despair and resignation, as he realises that orders given in Washington are useless if ...