Shafaq News/ "Once Upon a Time in Iraq" by researcher and expert on Iraqi affairs, Dr. Renad Mansour and the well-known British director James Blumel, has been enlisted among 2020's best political books by the Giant British book retailer "Waterstones".
Since 2012, the company has adopted an annual tradition whereby bookstore owners from all over the world submit a shortlist of the best books of the year in various fields.
The book "Once Upon a Time in Iraq", which is 416 pages of medium volume, is a contemporary tragedy history, published in the English language by BBC Publishing House. The book inspired an award-winning documentary under the name In The Iraq War.
The book explores the era that followed the U. S. troops invasion of Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein's regime, in which most people expected an easy victory, "Instead, the gamble we took was a grave mistake, and its ramifications continue to reverberate through the lives of millions, in Iraq and the West. As we gain more distance from those events, it can be argued that many of the issues facing us today - the rise of the Islamic State, increased Islamic terrorism, intensified violence in the Middle East, mass migration, and more - can be traced back to the decision to invade Iraq."
The director, James Blumel, who won several international awards, collected the first-hand testimonies of those who lived through the unspeakable horrors of the Iraq War," Blumel and Mansour's book is the most intricate analysis yet of the notorious 2003 conflict."
