Seven years in the making; 12 volumes; 2.6m words – today, Sir John Chilcot finally published his long-awaited report into the 2003 Iraq War.
You almost certainly haven’t read it. Moreover, what you’ve read about it is depressingly unlikely to have changed your views, either of the war or of Tony Blair’s role in it.
So here, instead, are some photographs of Iraqi bridges, before, during and after the conflict. They’ll all expand, if you click.
The Shadhu Bridge, across the River Tigris, in 1932. Image: AFP/Getty.
An aerial view of Baghdad, 1935. Image: AFP/Getty.
King Faisel’s Bridge, Baghdad, 1941. Image: AFP/Getty.
The locals in Samawa, 250km south of Baghdad, use boats to cross the Euphrates in February 1991, after the bridge was destroyed in the first Gulf War. Image: STR/Getty.
Iraqis walk across a bridge into Baghdad 13 April 2003, four days after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Image: AFP/Getty.
Iraqi men bathe in water leaking from a pipe under a damaged bridge May 5, 2003 in Baghdad. Image: Getty.
Iraqi men cross a bridge, repaired after suffering damage during the war to topple Saddam Hussein, 07 June 2003 in Baghdad. Image: Getty.
A US Army boat passes a bridge, damaged in the war in Tikrit, about 180 km north of Baghdad, in July 2003. Image: AFP/Getty.
US soldiers secure the area around the Al-Jamuria Bridge near the former presidential palace, following a protest by former Iraqi government workers demanding back pay, 7 October 2003. Image: AFP/Getty.
Protestors cross a bridge in Baquba, 60km northeast of Baghdad, to demand the release of Iraqi prisoners of war in Iran, 10 August 2003. Image: AFP/Getty.
An Iraqi girl at the newly re-oppened 14th of July bridge in Baghdad, 25 October 2003. Image: AFP/Getty.
A traffic policeman sits inside a damaged booth at the edge of a deserted bridge in central Baghdad, 14 December 2005, one day before the country’s general election. Image: AFP/Getty.
