Through the harsh lens of historical retrospect a quarter-century of Western military and political involvement, regime change, nation building, counter-terrorism operations and investment of lives and treasure in Iraq and Afghanistan must be declared a strategic failure.
So asserts author Ben Barry in his recently released book Blood, Metal And Dust: How Victory Turned Into Defeat In Afghanistan And Iraq (Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2020). Barry also places the lion’s share of responsibility for this failure at the feet of President George W Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose leadership and governmental lieutenants were inadequate in their vision and delivery of effective policies that might have resulted in lasting peace and security in the region. While providing a scathing indictment of Bush and Blair, Barry further critiques their successors, who in large part perpetuated their own legacies of ineptitude.