All language subtitles for Michael Palin - Into Iraq - S01E02.eng

I'm now well into Iraq
and what do I think?

Well, it certainly wasn't
the obvious place to visit

but that was part of the point,
really.

I didn't want to go somewhere
where everyone else was going,

but I particularly wanted to go
to somewhere

that had been through trauma
and difficulty and...

And see just how
people deal with it.

But I do know that
from here onwards,

when we go south into central Iraq
and on into Basra,

that things could get
more difficult.

We've already had a lot of
checkpoints where we have to stop,

sometimes for ages, while the gear
is checked and we're all checked.

There's that feeling of suspicion
that perhaps we shouldn't be here.

So the next bit of the journey,
though the toughest,

I think will be, for me,
the real revelation.

This is a tough one.
Erm, yeah. Yeah, it is.

Iraq -
a country defined by a dictator,

war and conflict.

To the world, it seems Iraq cannot
escape it's violent past.

But, after a week, I'm discovering
there's much more to this country.

I'm warm at last!

Following the River Tigris
from north to south...

This is why I like travelling -

on the Tigris going through
Baghdad.

...I'm travelling across
a land that 6,000 years ago

was the birthplace of civilisation.

You know, I never thought
I would say,

This is Michael Palin in Babylon.

A country that today
is full of surprises.

HE CH UCKLES SOFTLY
Breathtaking.

However, Iraq remains one of the
most dangerous places in the world

and my journey
is a challenging one...

Ah, now, close down.

On the horizon are the palaces
that Saddam Hussein built.

...but I'm determined to get beyond
the military checkpoints

and see a different side of
a country that is home

to 40 million people.

I'm very proud that I'm Iraqi.

Most places would have
the handrail there as well as here.

As I head south, the landscape
changes into the desert

that covers around half or Iraq.

Yeah, this is the trickier part
of Iraq -

this is federal Iraq with rules
and bureaucracy

that are well known
to be quite complicated,

so I don't quite know how fast
we'll make it through.

This next stage
of my journey will take me south to

the oil fields of Kirkuk,

before I rejoin the Tigris river

in Saddam Hussein's hometown,
Tikrit.

From there we head to Samarra

and finally Baghdad,
the capital of Iraq.

Getting hotter now as we head south

and...we've been passed by

an enormous number
of petrol tankers,

er, one after the other.

Kirkuk is a centre
of Iraq's oil industry,

which generates
around $100 billion every year.

As-salaam alaykum.
As-salaam alaykum.

These are the offices of North Oil

and just like
all oil companies here,

they're owned by the government.

Hello, hello. Hello, Michael.

As-salaam alaykum.
As-salaam alaykum, thank you.

Yeah, so he is the man -
he's helping us

with all this paperwork
and the permit. Thank you.

We're trying to get access to
the nearby oil field,

but this is where
Iraqi bureaucracy kicks in.

Aman, you're our fixer -
you're going to take us

all the way down to Basra -
but I'm very, very confused.

Tell me, what's actually going on at
the moment?

Why is it taking so long?

Erm, we are actually... This is like
the Kirkuk northern oil company -

it's, like, a really sensitive spot.
Erm,

there is so many authorities have
to approve

because it's like one of
the main oil company

in the country and it has
a lot of security.

What are they worried about so much?
Well, apparently they haven't seen

lots of foreigners
like you guys to visit.

Like, for them when I said
a foreign crew is visiting... Yeah.

"Oh, my God." Like, "What the hell?"

MICHAEL CHUCKLES
It's like...

We're dangerous.
We're dangerous, Aman.

Despite of, like, the fact
that you are British and you are...

You guys, you actually built
this building...

Yes, of course, of course.
..er, a century ago.

Iraq is not often remembered
as a British colony

but it was Britain
that was responsible

for drawing its borders
after the First World War.

To an extent, we created modern Iraq

and then ruled it until 1932.

And in 1927 it was the British
who discovered oil

right here in Kirkuk
and built these offices.

But after an hour of looking at
them, I'm still none the wiser

as to whether we'll be allowed
into the oil field.

Thank you, I'd like to announce
my resignation

from television documentaries
as from now.

I'm going to work for
the Northern Oil Company -

there's a gap for me in
the department of confusion

with a very, very small desk
which is upside down

and three men bring me
cups of tea every 17 minutes.

I bet when the British had this,

there'd be people scurrying around
and they'd be saying...

A lot of shouting.

"Hey boy, boy, get my car."

Then, suddenly,
there's a flurry of activity.

He just gave me good news -
like, we are free of movement.

Fantastic, fantastic. Finally.

And finally our cars - and six more
full of company officials -

make our way inside
the oil fields of Baba Gurgur.

This is where oil was first
discovered in Iraq

and the main reason the British
knew it was here

was thanks to this small area
of naturally burning gas.

It's known as the eternal flame.

TRANSLATION:

Almost 4,000 years.
That's incredible, isn't it? Wow!

This is quite a humble, modest site,

not a lot to look at,

and yet it's enormously significant

because the fire here has been
burning for 4,000 years

and this is what indicated that oil
was round here.

And you think all
the implications of that -

the British taking over
the Iraq oil industry,

the war in Iraq, 2003.

And over 90% of Iraq's economy
is based on oil.

This is where it started.

Our friends from North Oil don't
seem to be particularly chatty,

so I decided to chat to Amar about
the impact oil has had on Iraq.

Do you think it's been
a good thing for the country?

Well, unfortunately, the oil was
never good for this country -

it was always the source
of problems,

it was always the source of war.

Iraq for the last 40 years almost

has been going
from one war to another,

from one sanction to another.

I mean, other countries
like Dubai, Qatar, the Emirates

seem to have spent the oil money
very, very sort of lavishly

for their country.

I mean, could it have been
spent better here in Iraq?

Well, the answer is it was going to
the pocket of corrupt

or used by the dictatorship,

you know, like during Saddam time.

Ancl we are very jealous
of those people in the Gulf,

for example, like, being,
using their fortune in a good way

in the time that Iraqi are...
His fortune is waste.

Iraq's economy is still
totally dependent on oil,

but with widespread corruption

and a society where more than half
the working population

are employed by the government,

the oil money disappears quickly.

Downtown Kirkuk has limited charms.

But its Plaza Hotel gives me time
to remind myself about one of

the evils Iraq has had to deal with.

Saddam Hussein,
who ruled Iraq from 1979 to 2003,

is thought to have amassed
a fortune of $10 billion dollars

from Iraq's oil.

He was also a brutal dictator,
responsible for the deaths

of hundreds of thousands
of his own people.

And tomorrow, I'm heading
to his hometown, Tikrit,

one of the most fascinating
but dangerous places in Iraq.

Planning a road trip across Iraq
is unsurprisingly a tricky business.

We're packing up for the next part
of our journey to Tikrit

and a lot of people -
most people, actually -

would fly.
This is quite a dangerous area.

And I just noticed today that,

"Iraq begins anti-Daesh/lsis
operation north of country."

So where this operation
is taking place

is a place called Mahoul Mountain,
er, which we'll be passing through.

And this is where the remnants of
Isis and Daesh still are.

So it's a difficult, dangerous area,
but hopefully we'll reach Tikrit.

The fact that
there are still pockets

of the Islamic extremist group
Isis around here

is a reminder that Iraq has been
ripped apart by fighting since 2003.

The condition of the road -

there are heavy grooves where tanks
have gone along.

And here we go - oop, wait for it.

Hey. Well...

On cue.

One of the most obvious signs of how
militarised Iraq has become

are the security checkpoints
on roads.

Passport, please.

Passport, yeah. There we go.

There are parts of life here
when you just have to sit there...

Michael? ..and eat sweets.

Oh, thank you.

They don't normally like cameras
at checkpoints,

but Iraq can sometimes surprise you.

This is the first time
we've been allowed to film,

erm, at a checkpoint.

Don't know quite why
but there's a colonel here

and the colonel came up
and he was very, very friendly.

And the guy checking our passports
is smiling,

which is very,
very rare at the checkpoints.

It's quite a fancy checkpoint, this,
rather a fine work of design.

Mostly they're just basic sheds.

I'm slightly nervous about this
freedom we've got to wonder about.

OFFICIALS SHOUT

Ah, no, close down.

OK.

Happily,
our friendly colonel steps in

and filming is allowed
to continue...

...as long as we give them a photo.

OK, yeah, all right. Instagram.

I don't have an Instagram
account, actually.

So, he has one.
There we are, all in.

Yeah. Welcome to Samarra.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Very nice...

Very nice
to be welcomed with a smile.

Appreciate that, thank you.

Welcome, welcome to Iraq,
welcome to Tikrit and we...

So much to look forward to.

Much later than planned,
we leave Checkpoint Cheerful.

Farewell, thank you. Thank you all.

Well, that was amazing.

I mean, like, sort of...

...peak of hospitality
at that checkpoint.

Normally you just check through
and off you go.

This time they said, er,
we could film there,

so I feel, you know,
rather boosted by that.

Mind you, it means the rest of
the day will be a mad rush.

Soon we approach
the outskirts of Tikrit,

which is probably best known
as Saddam Hussein's hometown.

I think over there you can just
see on the horizon,

rising up from the rest of the city,
and another there,

the palaces that, er,
Saddam Hussein built

not only for himself but for his,
sort of, supporters.

Tikrit also reunites me
with the river.

Looking out at the Tigris,
which we haven't seen for a while.

Oh, those palaces are extraordinary.

Saddam Hussein built hundreds
of massive palaces across Iraq

during his three decades of power,

and many of them are in Tikrit.

When the town was captured by the
Sunni Islamic extremist group Isis

in June 2014, they took over
many of the riverside palaces -

using them as military bases.

I've been given special permission
to enter the palace complex

by the Shia paramilitary group
that now controls it.

But they don't want to show me
the palaces themselves -

instead I'm directed to a small
building on the side of the river.

Once used to dock boats,

it became the site of a terrible act
of terror against Shia Muslims.

This is the scene of one of
the grimmest of all the events

in Iraq's recent grim history.

It's called the Speicher Massacre.

What happened here was that when
Isis had taken over Tikrit in 2014,

er, they brought down here, erm,
a party of cadets

from the Speicher base,
originally American base,

and brought them here supposedly
telling them it was a day off,

took their weapons.

Brought them down here to
the side of the River Tigris...

...got them to kneel down

and shot them all
and pushed them into the river.

1,700 Shia cadets were killed here

and that's what all this is about
for the...

Particularly for the Shias, but,
you know, for anyone,

this is the scene of a devastating
and really horrific event

right by...
right by the Tigris river,

flowing by, as it has done
many thousands of years.

Can't have witnessed anything
much worse than that.

They were all so young,
little thing...

“YOUHQ boys

Here are the various photos of them.
Relatives have laid them out.

Yeah.

It's just horrible.

And utterly callous.

This place has now be com a makeshift
shrine to the dead cadets,

who were all Shia Muslims.

Shia and Sunni are
the two main sects of Islam

and Isis is an extremist Sunni group
who see all Shias as heretics.

Here, where the Tigris runs through
Tikrit, there could hardly be, erm,

two more telling examples of
the futility of war.

Right here
1,700 young men massacred

and thrown into the river.

And across the way there, one of
Saddam Hussein's many palaces -

now broken and destroyed.

What good did it do anyone?

You kn ow?

I'd been warned before I came
to Iraq

that it wasn't going to be
an easy journey.

And as I get deeper
into the country,

I find my natural optimism
taking a beating.

Terrible things have happened here.

You just can't escape it.

Thankfully, it's time to move on.

We're now, if you like,
reunited with the Tigris.

We're running alongside the river...

...and it's taking us to Samarra.

As we head further south alongside
the river, we pass the ruins

of the 1,000-year-old
Qasr al-'Ashiq palace.

It's a timely reminder that
there's more to Iraq than conflict.

Thousands of years ago,
the Tigris helped give birth

to some of the earliest
human civilisations.

And that is the other side
of Iraq's story.

And as we enter
the historic town of Samarra,

one of the country's most famous
monuments starts to emerge.

This is the great mosque of Samarra.

Built in the ninth century,

over 80,000 people can pray here
at one time.

And at one end is its distinctive
spiral minaret,

built 1,200 years ago.

The word "Samarra" translates as
"a joy for all those that see it".

And seeing this brings me my first
feeling of joy for quite a few days.

Right, here we go.
This is the easy bit.

The minaret has 650 steps

and nothing to stop you
falling off the side.

Whoops! Thank you. Shukran.

It's best for me to stay
on the inside.

I'm not trying to scare myself

but most places would have
the handrail there as well as here.

But I suppose that's...part of it.

Wowee!

That fantastic view of
the old mosque.

Once the biggest mosque
in the world, that.

Ooh!

Oh!

Best not to look
right over the edge.

And... Oh, you meet people
on the phone coming down.

Thank you. All right,
you stay there, I'll go here.

I'm unsure of the etiquette.

Should people walk round me
or should I walk round them?

It's quite a ways down now,
isn't it?

Whole thing's about 52 metres.

I do think the steps seem
to be getting shorter as we go.

Must be near the top.

Hello. Hello.

Which way, are you?

All right?
Yeah, you fall off, not me.

Wow! The Tigris.

Fantastic!

What a view.

The last bit.

Despite increasing levels
of vertigo,

I manage to make it to the top -
and the view is spectacular.

Iraq is often called
the cradle of civilisation

and this was largely thanks
to its rivers,

which flooded
and irrigated the land,

encouraging humans to settle on
their banks over 10,000 years ago.

It's a little busier than I'd like
but I'm pleased to be here.

Well, I've actually made it
to the top here and, erm,

feel slightly unstable but...

...there's absolutely no protection
here at all.

But somehow this is
a kind of friendly building.

Looking around and seeing the
Tigris,

which feeds all the agriculture,

and it gives you a sense
of the history of this place.

I mean, on the journey so far
I've really experienced some of

the harsher realities
of modern Iraq.

And it makes you think that its
history's been very, very short

and very, very brutal.

In fact, it's been long
and probably very brutal.

But it has been lived in by people
for 10,000 years, some of it,

and this building itself makes
you think how skilful they were,

how brilliant they were at putting
buildings like this together

when Iraq was at the heart of
the civilised world.

As dusk falls, I realise Iraq is a
place that toys with your emotions.

Its recent history can plunge
you into the depths of despair.

But if you look beyond it, then you
can see there's something impressive

and inspiring about this country.

The next morning we continue our
Journey

to the farming village of Dhuluiya,
on the banks of the Tigris.

Throughout human history,
the Tigris has been

a source of life in this part of
the world,

particularly for agriculture.

But thanks to global warming,

the water levels of Iraq's rivers
are falling each year.

But we have another issue
to deal with.

This is what's making our progress
through Iraq now quite difficult

because, erm,
the roadblocks are everywhere -

even in the countryside here.

And you come to a roadblock
and you're never sure,

erm, how long they're
going to keep you.

You have to give your passport,

there's a great deal of debate
and talking.

It's kind of frustrating.

Eventually we're allowed through.

And as we start to pass fields,

it becomes clear just how dry
the land has become.

I'm meeting a local farmer, Has him,
who wants to show me his river,

a tributary of the Tigris that once
supplied his crops with water.

So, that river is very important
to you.

How much of your water
comes from the river?

Before, er,

the water covered all of this area.

It was five metres. Five metres, OK,
yes. It's just a trickle right now.

Yeah.
Now, since last three seasons...

...there's no rain - little rain.

The water means the life, you know.
Yeah.

So water's more important to Iraq
than oil?

Of course. Of course.

We put in our pockets
nothing from oil.

No. Yeah. No, no.

While talking to Has him, I realise
that our armed friends

from the checkpoint have arrived.

Unknown to us,
Isis have been active in the area.

The militias here -
are they still operating?

Yes. Really?

Er, some clays ago they saw
them during the night

moving there, just there.

Ancl they attacked the checkpoint
there... OK. ..some clays ago, yeah.

So they are around here.
And does that frighten you or...?

Yeah, yes, you know, we use the...

We use our land for agriculture
but we feel dangerous every time.

Looking around this arid landscape,

I suspect Has him is more worried
about a lack of rain than Isis.

Nothing is growing here.
These fields should be green,

full of crops,

but for acres and acres
there is nothing.

The Iraq government has warned
that 90% of agricultural land

could soon become desert.

Despite the lack of crops,

Has him kindly invites us back to his
house in the village for lunch.

This is...
This is fantastic - what a spread.

This is all, er, home-made. Yep.

Yeah, er, this is, er,
chicken, you know.

Yeah, never seen chicken quite like
that. That's beautifully done.

Oh, thank you.

It's very much a family affair

but there's a notable absence
of any women.

And who makes... Who makes the food?
Do you all make a bit?

My mum and my wife.

Oh, right. They've been working away
behind the scenes?

Yeah.

We must thank them.

We must thank them if we can,
cos it's wonderful.

Are we... Is it possible to say
thank you to them?

Yeah, no problem.

Mm, mm.

At home probably we would, erm...

My wife would probably be
at the meal too. Yeah, yeah.

So that's a difference here,
isn't it? Yeah.

After the meal
comes the ubiquitous sweet tea -

a favourite of Amar, our fixer.

Cheers, bottoms up.

I can't imagine like people
drinking tea without sugar, man.

I have seen lots of friends are
doing it but it's, like, nonsense.

You see, we have lots of
health problems

and sugar is supposed
to be not good for you.

Are your teeth all right?
They're all there.

Not necessarily in the right order!
LAUGHTER

I have... This row - it's all...

It's in the wrong way, you see?
Oh, it is. but I never fix them.

But none of my...
all girls I dated have ever said,

like, "Your teeth is wrong,

"something is wrong with
your teeth," so it's fine for me.

They're too polite, probably.
They're too polite.

THEY CHUCKLE

As our jovial lunch goes on,

concerns about the lack of rain
seem to fade into the background.

Hashim's problems don't seem
to weigh him down

but this is Iraq, where resilience
is part of the national character.

As dusk falls,
we leave Dhluiya behind

and head south towards the capital.

This is the halfway point on my
journey across Iraq

and I feel a distinct sense of
wonder as we finally enter Baghdad.

After a few days on the road,

it looks like a glittering
metropolis.

Wow! That is amazing.

Looks like several palaces
and a mosque rolled into one.

It's actually the railway station.
Dazzling!

And for me, there's something

particularly special
about being here.

Well, we've followed the Tigris
river all the way to Baghdad.

Here we are crossing it.

It's rather amazing, cos the
first book I was ever given

in my life was from my father
at the age of seven

and it was
Tales From The Arabian Nights.

And from that time onwards,

Baghdad has always had this sort of
magical, mysterious, exotic quality.

Yet here I am,
for the first time in my life,

at the age of 78, in Baghdad.

And my hotel leaves me in no doubt
of where we've arrived.

The next morning, I wake up
in the capital city of Iraq.

Well, we're getting one of these
little ferry boats across the Tigris

to the old city there.

Quite enjoying being by the Tigris
on a lovely day

and...about to go on
her jade-green waters.

Thank you. Shukran.

Hello. Hello there.

This is why I like travelling.

We're on the Tigris,
going through Baghdad.

Baghdad dates back over
a thousand years,

the Tigris making it an ideal centre
for trade and travel.

Now one of the biggest cities
in the Middle East,

it has a population of more than
eight million.

It's the weekend,

and even though it's only 10am
things look busy.

OK, very good. I love you.

You love me, do you?
Well, I love you too.

This does me a lot of good
at my age, you know.

THEY SING

This is Mutanabbi Street,

named after a famous
tenth-century Iraqi poet.

For a thousand years,
this area has drawn in poets,

artists and intellectuals.

This is how to clean shoes.
I love that.

Look at that...technique.

There we are.

Today, it feels like half
the population of the city

are crammed into this small area.

But after Kirkuk and Tikrit,

the buzz of downtown Baghdad
is something of a revelation.

Next to Mutanabbi Street
is the Qishla building,

built by the Ottomans
as a garrison in 1861.

Today it's a cultural centre

and on Fridays,
its grounds are open to the public.

And, once again,
it's all about poetry.

TRANSLATION:

You can tell they're poets -

somehow the man with the beret
and the glasses

and the beard could only be a poet.

He's almost like
a 20th-century poet.

It's a sort of poetry slam really.

They're poets all fighting with each
other to get the audience going.

And erm, a lot of humour. You can
tell there's lots of smiles in it.

So I think it's Iraqi satire
I think they're doing here.

CROWD CHEER

I'm heartened by this place,

After a week in Iraq,

it can sometimes feel like
the problems are insurmountable.

But on a sunny weekend in Baghdad,

all of that just seems
to fade into the background.

And then, by chance,
I bump into Hassan...from Wimbledon.

I'm from London. Oh, are you really?
Are you here, what, for...?

Erm, I'm vising my family.
This is my cousin. Erm, we're...

How do you do? I'm here for
the first time since, erm...

Since leaving in 2000 and.
You were born here?

I was born in Iraq, yeah.
You're born in Iraq. Yeah.

So what do you think now?

What do you think now,
how do you feel?

Honestly? Yeah.

It's overwhelming to hear
the stories, the conflict -

before Saddam, after Saddam,
everything, you know...

Yeah, in between.
What the country went through. Yeah.

The Iraqi people stay strong and one
thing about us is we stay, we live.

No matter what happens,
we continue with our clay

and that's one thing
that Iraq prides itself on.

Much as I find myself enjoying
the old city,

it's hard not to notice, once again,

how few women you see
out and about in Iraq.

And it's something of a relief
when we find someone who's happy

not only to dine with me in public,
but also be filmed.

This is a very ancient way
to cook the fish here in Iraq,

especially in
the southern region, erm...

Sarah Eunice is studying at
the Baghdad university of technology

and has invited me to try
Iraq's national dish, masgouf.

They cook it vertically,
not horizontally like that.

As you see, it's hanged like this.

Masgouf is basically carp,

a river fish that was once abundant
in the Tigris

and has been eaten on its shores
for thousands of years.

Like many places in Iraq,

our restaurant is divided
into two parts -

the main dining hall is
for men only,

while the family area outside

is where women and children
are allowed to eat.

Actually, Iraqis, they prefer,
as I told you,

to eat fish with the whole family,
so it's a gathering meal.

So it's quite unusual to have...
Yeah. ..just two people eating it?

Just two people eating it.

Only if they are falling in love
and his wife, she is loving to him.

Really? Well... Yeah, I mean...

He wants to please her.

We can't exactly do that
but anyway we'll pretend.

Anyway... We'll pretend
we're falling in love.

Yeah. So, actually, erm,
for Iraqis they eat,

as I told you, the fish with
red rice. I'm gonna use my hand.

Yeah, OK. We should use our hands,
shouldn't we?

Look at that fat. Yeah.

There's one. What's that?
Is that... There's one here.

It's a bit hot.

Though born in Iraq, Sarah spent
much of her childhood in Malaysia,

exposing her to slightly more gender
equality than you see around here.

So, what do you think
of modern Iraq now?

I mean, this is...
This is lovely food and all that

but we have to eat out here
because you're a woman and I'm a man

and we can't eat in there,
which is men only. Yeah, mm-hm.

What do you think about that?
Yeah, these kind of rules

and regulations,
they've put back culturally.

Yeah. But actually I am respecting
their rules and regulations

but I'm trying to change it. Mm.

Erm, I'm very patient with it
because I'm...

I know that changing takes
period of time.

But what I'm trying
with other people is to change

the mind-set of older generations.

Because these kind of generations,
they got raised like this.

It's not their problem,
it's their... Yeah.

The way they're raised.
How do you...

How would you meet
a young man or something like that?

Because I was told really only
couples who are engaged

to each other can go out together.

Yeah, that's true. Actually,
for me and my family we go out,

they allowed me here to go out with
the groups of females and males,

then I'm allowed in this case.

But in other cases,
it's only to be specific.

For example, now I cannot go out
with a guy by his car

and drive me home.
No, it's not appropriate.

Can't be done? Yeah, yeah.
Cannot be clone.

But if it was, like, Uber
then I'm allowed,

because I'm sitting in the backside,
not in the... Oh, I see.

...in the front seat.

Are people... Are Iraqis still proud
of their country?

Yeah, they are.
I would say I'm one of them.

I'm very proud that I'm Iraqi, Yeah.

Like, everywhere I go I'm proud
that I speak Arabic,

I'm proud that I'm wearing my veil.

Yeah, it's my identity. Yeah.

You cannot choose your identity

but you can choose if you want
to love it or not.

It's been a long but enlightening
day on the streets of Baghdad.

Tomorrow could be very different.

I've been given permission to enter
the infamous green zone,

the most militarised part of
the city.

For many of us,
our lasting image of Baghdad

was created almost 20 years ago.

TONY BLAIR: On Tuesday night,
I gave the order for British forces

to take part in military action
in Iraq.

Tonight,
British servicemen and women

are engaged from air, land and sea.

One of the iconic moments of
the Iraq war

was when a statue of Saddam Hussein
was toppled in Firdos Square.

And this is that same square today.

This is Firdos Square

and here behind me
on April the 9th 2003,

perhaps the most famous
statue toppling in history,

Saddam Hussein's statue was
pulled down,

hit with slippers.

Total jubilation as they brought
Saddam Hussein's reign to an end -

the great symbolic moment was here.

And I think for many people
this was where, you know...

The last thing we remember
about Iraq, the end of the war.

And you look around now at Baghdad

and you can see ads for
mobile phones,

and mobile phones were, I think,
prohibited by Saddam Hussein.

The just general feeling that
everything has moved on.

Firdos Square is now, erm, a very
different... A very different place.

However, there's one lasting
reminder of the Iraq war in Baghdad

that's hard to ignore.

Surrounded by a concrete wall
and high security,

the green zone is a city
within a city.

It's been hard to get permission
to enter this bubble of politicians

and international diplomats.

And I've been warned that security
is tight.

But then as we approach
the security checkpoint...

...we're waved through without being
stopped for the first time in weeks.

So maybe Iraq is starting
to put its guard down.

This is where all the embassies are,

the last perimeter walls,

which apparently used to be
all over Baghdad.

Before it was sealed off from
the city,

this area was the centre of power
under Saddam Hussein.

And I'm here to see what is probably
the most famous icon of that time.

Built in the 1980s,
it's known as the victory arch.

40 metres high,

the swords were cast from
the weapons of fallen soldiers

in the Iran-Iraq war.

There's really
no more obvious example

of Saddam Hussein's massive ego
than this victory arch,

erm, here in the green zone.

And it is on a megalomanic scale.

You can see the hands there
holding the swords.

And apparently this thumb up here

was based actually on
Saddam's own thumbprint.

I think you look at it and,
all right, it's about Saddam's ego

and we've seen examples
of that all over the country -

buildings, huge buildings
either neglected or destroyed.

But, I mean,
apart from anything else,

just what he took out of
this country to build this

and the parade ground here...

...which he used
to go through on a horse,

waving grandly,

and then there's a pavilion up there
where he used to review the troops

while firing his rifle in the air.

So this is, er...
Yeah, it's all about megalomania.

And it didn't work out too well
for him in the end.

Amar remembers what life was like
under Saddam Hussein

and during the Iraq war.

What did you think at
the time of the allied invasion?

Well, honestly, I was very happy

because I lived 13 years
during sanctions, but...

So, yeah, I mean...

So, despite the fact that
bombs and rockets were hitting,

er, Baghdad in 2003, you felt this
was better than nothing happening?

I was very overwhelmed and
very happy to see the US army

in my town.
I chanted, "Long life, Bush."

Right. I regretted later,

but at that moment
if you asked me how I felt

I can tell you, I was so happy.
Because it was end of the sanctions,

end of the Saddam era

and, like, we were so optimistic
for a new life, new future.

So, what was your attitude to
the anti-war protests in London

and the rest of Europe
and all around the world?

To be honest, I was... I was
against this protest. Were you?

Ancl I was not happy to see these
people protesting against the war.

Regime was not easy.
The regime was very tough and,

er, brutal against the people.

Sadly, things did not improve
after the war.

Instead of peace and prosperity
came insurgency and violence.

CHANTING

But my time in Baghdad

makes me think that things
are finally turning a corner.

So as I enter my final week in Iraq,

I hope to get a sense of
where the future lies

for the people of this
beguiling country.

Next time...

As-salaam alaykum. Good morning.

...| go back to school.

When you think of Iraq,
they know the famous places

but they don't know what Iraq is.

HORN HONKS

...catch the Basra Express...

Oh! Breathtaking.

...visit treasured sites
old and new...

Saddam certainly knew what he was
doing when he wanted a nice view.

...and the Tigris and I...

Whoa!

...reach our final destination.

This is it, this is the end of Iraq.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media