Twenty years ago this morning the UK woke up to the news that the “shock and awe” element of Operation Iraqi Freedom had begun with the bombardment of the country’s major cities. The war drums had been beating out of Washington for some time and duly echoed in the UK, where then prime minister Tony Blair was a fully paid-up member of American president George W. Bush’s “coalition of the willing”. Despite Bush declaring “mission accomplished” within two months, the war was to continue for eight years, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians and combatants.
But since Bush’s successor as president, Barack Obama, pulled US troops out of Iraq in 2011, violence has continued to fill mortuaries across the fractured country. Lily Hamourtziadou is an expert in security studies at Birmingham City University and a member of the Iraq Body Count team that has monitored violent deaths in Iraq for 20 years. She gives us their assessment of the casualty count and the strife-torn nation the US invasion left behind. For the UK, it
was a conflict that was to define Blair’s time in office. But, despite all the heartache and misgivings about the UK’s role in Iraq, little appears to have been learned.
Elsewhere, we hear from experts on how to achieve happiness at work and why the evolution of holey bones was so crucial to dinosaurs’ success in dominating the planet.
|
|
Jonathan Este
Associate Editor, International Affairs Editor
|
|
‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’: the bombing of Baghdad, March 2003.
Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy Stock Photo
Lily Hamourtziadou, Birmingham City University
Iraq Body Count has kept a close tally of people killed in Iraq since the invasion started in March 2003.
|
Jacob Lund/Alamy Stock Photo
Cary Cooper, University of Manchester
The average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime, so you might as well try and enjoy it.
|
Dinosaurs once dominated Earth’s landscapes.
AmeliAU/Shutterstock
Sally Christine Reynolds, Bournemouth University
Hollow bones were essential for dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex.
|
Politics + Society
|
-
Christopher Featherstone, University of York
The former PM was criticised for making decisions without proper advice or consultation
-
Robert M. Dover, University of Hull
Agencies may make more checks, but they can’t prevent politicians misusing intelligence information, says an expert.
|
|
Arts + Culture
|
-
Jamie Medhurst, Aberystwyth University
The Wales Broadcast Archive in Aberystwyth brings together the archives of the BBC, ITV and S4C under one roof.
-
Matthew Higgins, University of Portsmouth
It might have been a show about a zombie apocalypse adapted from a hugely popular game but The Last of Us managed to offer audiences a lot of novel material.
-
Hantian Zhang, Sheffield Hallam University
The Youtube stars have created something of a commercial blueprint by harnessing the platform’s algorithms to maximise Prime’s exposure.
|
|
Business + Economy
|
-
George Kladakis, Edinburgh Napier University
The banking crisis has been caused by the interest rate rises, and further hikes were supposed to be a no no.
-
Ben M Clift, University of Warwick
There can be no quick fix for deeply rooted economic problems.
-
Enrico Bonadio, City, University of London; Andrea Zappalaglio, University of Sheffield
For some producers, the American approach to EU delicacies really grates.
|
|
Education
|
-
Markus Klein, University of Strathclyde ; Edward Sosu, University of Strathclyde
Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of classes.
|
|
Science + Technology
|
-
Eerke Boiten, De Montfort University
AI was mentioned several times in the spring budget, but the science that might deliver the next generation of technologies was mostly absent.
-
Helen Jones, University of South Wales; Fiona Brookman, University of South Wales
CCTV is a popular form of digital evidence but it can be unreliable and problematic.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
23 March 2023
•
Manchester
|
|
23 - 24 March 2023
•
Manchester
|
|
24 March 2023
•
Manchester
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|