Channel 4 Dispatches - The Real War on Terror - Iraq: The Reckoning (1/3)

Channel 4: Dispatches The Real War on Terror ---------------------- http://www.channel4.com/news/microsites/R/real_war_on_terror/index.html The Invasion of Iraq began on the 20th March 2003. The United States and Great Britain and led a grouping of nations in what was dubbed the "coalition of the willing". The stated justification for going to war was Iraqi possession of weapons of mass destruction, the need to depose the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and to curtail his support of terrorist organisations. On 1st May 2003 George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in a military jet. He gave a speech announcing the end of major combat operations in the Iraq war. Clearly visible in the background was a banner stating "Mission Accomplished." Two years later the body count of Iraqi civilians is at least 27,000, and rising with the daily occurrence of violent bombings. In The Real War on Terror season, Dispatches exposes both the human and political costs of the invasion of Iraq. =============================================================================== Part 1 of 3 - Iraq: The Reckoning First transmitted Channel 4 November 21st 2005 Peter Oborne, political editor of the Spectator, reports on the West's exit strategy for Iraq. He believes the invasion of Iraq is proving to be the greatest foreign policy failure since Munich. Oborne argues that the plan to transform Iraq into a unified liberal democracy, a beacon of hope in the Middle East, is pure fantasy. Reporting on location with US troops in Sadr City, and through interviews with leading figures in Britain and the US, Oborne argues that the coalition and its forces on the ground are increasingly irrelevant in determining the future of Iraq - a future that's unlikely to be either unified, liberal or democratic. The film includes interviews with Richard Perle, Peter Galbraith, Deputy Chief of Army staff General Jack Keane. Oborne also interviews Rory Stewart, who worked as a deputy governor in Nasyriah and witnessed first hand the rise of the pro-Iranian fundamentalist parties that are now at the heart of the Iraqi government.