The Iraq War at 20: Anniversary journalism, British cultural memory, and the politics of closure

Abstract

Anniversaries are important milestones. Acting as a temporal bridge, they are a moment whereby certain understandings of the past can be naturalised in the present. In the case of war commemoration, this is of particular importance (Ashplant, Dawson, and Roper, 2015; Danilova, 2015). This article is the first qualitative analysis of British press coverage at the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War. It builds on the existing studies of press coverage at its first and tenth anniversaries to establish British cultural memories of the Iraq War 20 years after the event. By examining seven broadsheets and tabloids, as well as four mainstream broadcast media channels between the defined period of 15 February to 1 May 2023, it identifies that much of the coverage of this anniversary within the British press clustered into five main themes: ‘Dissent’, ‘Controversy’, ‘Uncertainty/Certainty’, ‘Rehabilitation’, and ‘Victims’. Within these themes the coverage explored the memory and legacy of the Iraq conflict with a heavy focus on what it now means for Britain’s place in the world, whilst also showcasing much more of the Iraqi experience than was ever the case in 2003. Significantly, the twentieth anniversary coverage reveals the British media engaging in an act of cathartic conscience cleansing that simultaneously ‘overs’ any criticism and recognition of injustice. The media that supported the war in 2003 were, 20 years later, able to declare it a controversial mistake without bearing any culpability for their role in backing it.