Why Did The US Invade Baghdad? The Human Stories Behind The Conflict | @RealStories

[Music] early in 2003 Baghdad was waiting Baghdad was uncertain life went on but everyone knew that tomorrow they'd be plunged into the unknown all the Decades of Deceit and cruelty have now reached an end US President George Walker Bush had taken the decision to invade Iraq the operation would be called Iraqi Freedom its aim to overthrow Saddam Hussein absolute Master of the country for 35 [Music] years behind the Desert Sands foreign troops massed on the borders of neighboring countries they awaited the final order to attack Saddam Hussein was driven into a corner caught in the net but he stood firm he knew his two oldest assets would now be more useful than ever Pride everyone would see it his determination and his dominant Charisma which would give everyone confidence he also knew he would have to reckon with the setbacks he had caused in order to rule suspicion Civility and [Music] Terror a few weeks before the deployment of the American Steamroller a strange scene occurred in a windowless room in one of the secret Villas to which the regime had relocated its departments to prepare the repost to The Invasion a kind of final act in which the Absurd blindness and Insanity are brought out into the open a handful of Str ists among the most submissive presented the rice with some of their findings enough to do battle with the Americans Nails bows and arrows and [Music] slings Saddam Hussein observed waited then smiled the previous night he had entrusted his translators with the final pages of a book he was writing a Magical Tale entitled out devil a threatening phrase but fiction nonetheless [Music] [Music] oh oh [Music] as we were there from September 2002 as we moved to March 2003 it became more and more clear that in fact we would have to probably end up going to war and probably would enter into Iraq I remember I believe it was late summer that we understood that we would have to deploy in order to take the mission to go to Iraq um it was about probably August and there was a gate training strategy that we had to had to develop in order to have the soldiers train and for our platoon and our companies in order to be confident my Brigade combat team deployed with the 101st the rest of our division in February of 2003 we went to uh Kuwait and uh occupied several assembly areas camps if you will and my Brigade was in Camp Pennsylvania I have a military background I was in the Marines myself when I was a young man so I understand certain things about being with the military so when the Pentagon first announced that it was thinking about having an an bringing journalists with him having an embedded journalism program uh my editor came to me or actually the foreign editor for the chronicle approached me and asked me would I'd be interested in in being part of [Music] it I was writing a novel at the time but I gradually felt that this work of the imagination was turning into a series of daily articles on the approaching war on my friends leaving Baghdad for their hometowns and on the mindset of the youth in face of the new world awaiting them the future was blurred that's what frightened people most but within that fear there was a hope for change people wanted this change whatever the cost even foreign occupation [Music] we were AUD visual graduates we were posted to radio and TV station my department numbered two young women one older lady and two men none of us felt like [Music] reporters in Iraq the situation was this the people were hungry and the soldiers pay was very low they wanted everything back to normal so that they could start living like people in the Gulf States they believed that after Iraq was invaded they'd live like there in safety and in wealth wanding for nothing medium regular coat large regular coat medium regular coat I was renting a house me an officer a colonel in the Army was my monthly pay enough to feed the family after two weeks it had all gone after 10 days all gone how do you make it to the end of the month I'm talking about my own situation during a time when we when all we ate was bread and yogurt a bit of cheese and a yogurt that was dinner and I was a senior officer it was Madness during the Embargo a soldier's pay was never above 3,000 dins or3 to4 dollar a month and he had to travel from one region to the next eat drink sleep and then return to the front all these conditions made Invasion easier rather than motivate a soldier to defend his [Music] homeland I left the Army in 2002 since I was unqualified I started working in the presidential palaces as part of a team installing the internal Communications networks I earned 2500 dins a day just under $3 and I was paid weekly the average salary for members of the security services was never higher than $5 to $10 a month members of the security services in the Army dressed like hobos those who gave into stealing or corruption made out okay but the rest lived in extreme [Music] poverty initially the fourth division was a part of the force that was supposed to enter Iraq it was a very powerful division it was our most modern division at the time in our most modern mechanized division Vehicles were able to see through digitized computer screens where each other [Music] were terms of modernizing its military equipment Iraq was way behind so in case of an attack on Baghdad we wouldn't have been able to get one plane off the ground the vehicle I commanded is an M1 A1 main battle tank it's a main battle tank it's heavily armored and it's heavily armed it's got 120 mm Cannon which is a big cannon it shoots with a muzzle velocity of a mile a second the round coming out of the tube travels a mile a second and there's no armor on the on the modern-day Battlefield that that Cannon cannot defeat so if I can hit you it's going to kill you [Music] Iraqi military equipment was a full generation behind that of the Americans in the regiments I commanded the most modern tanks dated from 1972 that's old enough but we had other tanks that dated from 1955 and 1962 there was constant training constant activity so much so that there was a haze over all of Kuwait that was made from all the the the tanks and the armored personnel carriers and and and and boots on the ground that just was like was like smog it just the entire sky was lit up with this this bright um Haze let's go let's go it worked out very well for us cuz we had the entire desert to train and operate in and so we did what all American units do we do War Games what if kind of things because we never knew if we did get the order to conduct The Invasion what would the objective be and and how far would we [Music] go in Iraq the bat party had two branches one civilian and one military as bat was the only party in government also controlled the Army any citizen who worked in public or military services had to be a bat party member for military men it was strict they had to be loyal and faithful to the bat party [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the party apparatus controlled the whole area we controlled every district main streets and back alleys we had the full responsibility of a centralized body whose leaders in the field held all sorts of powers that way the moment someone came into one of our sectors they were immediately checked and questioned every street corner and intersection there was a party office on one side a security service office on the other and nearby there was always a secret service office all three of them were watching each other any party bigwig could claim to have recruited a thousand activists when he'd really only recruited a handful or the aim was to look good in the eyes of the leaders but this illusion of a massive number of party members weakened the regime in the end they didn't stop coming to see us we asked them what they wanted and they said they wanted women as well as men to become bad party members may Allah damn them they wanted us to turn into their supporters so we would spy on our own friends and Families in Iraq social relations had broken down Sons denounced fathers daughters denounced mothers and wives wrote reports denouncing their husbands so social and family ties were completely undone to such a point that a father could send his son off to war in the hope that he'd die a martyr and the father would earn a bonus or be awarded [Music] damages we did get a lot of training about the Iraqi people about the culture and they told us they understand we're have a different Rel religion but if you're the sort of person who hides your religion that makes you untrustable so don't hide your religion we learned some uh some languages some some words thank you uh stop stop all shoot we learned how to say Kei which means stop and uh shakron which means thank you l shakron means no thank you Medina mean City very few words if you're a combat unit and you're your your your mission is to is to is to kill and lay waste to everything in front of you so what do you need to know about the local population not much you just need to know that they're not dressed the same as you are and and you just need to know what kind of weapons they might have or what kind of problems you might run into one of the things I I emphasize and I and I'm a realist in this respect you're not going to teach everybody how to speak Arabic but if you pick up a few phrases I mean I I know how to say thank you in 25 languages and and those that word get you the most mileage in in just about any culture there was some cultural uh training sensitivity training in the sense of trying to instill in the marines that uh that they were not there to be a conquering force uh they tried to instill it very much in them that that in fact what they were there to do was was depose Saddam Hussein and get Saddam out of power and then leave [Music] [Applause] [Music] of course the regime controlled media only showed one side of things and never the other alternative media and television channels were banned so by only ever seeing Sadam Hussein making his speeches you ended up believing him and before the war this belief was at a maximum [Music] a few months before the war those close to the powers that be had a feeling of fear and uncertainty that we didn't pick up on one day as we were watching Saddam Hussein making a speech at the place of his nephew aen sawi aan suddenly started laughing I asked him why he was laughing especially because his Uncle seemed really pessimistic and he said when my uncle smiles and smokes a cigar it means he's sure he'll win I told him there's no proof that a smile in a cigar could bring off such a [Music] miracle people were worn out when rumors spread of the end of saddam's regime we were dumbfounded but when he appeared on to make his speeches we all thought he was nuts that he' lost his mind he carried on as if he held the whole Arab world in his [Music] hand on June 30th 2002 in a meeting with Saddam I asked if we could talk about the possible forthcoming war with the US I Illustrated the gap between including the Republican guard our so-called crack troops and the American and Allied Forces none of us doubted we could defeat saddam's Army uh our army had defeated them once before in the first gol War we knew that they were going to be beaten and severely the question became what then as War seemed inevitable I suggested to the president that we reorganize our Army and the way we did battle in order to mount gorilla [Music] Warfare after the meeting while we were posing for the official photo the president gave a in smile and said are you trying to scare us General we were just simple soldiers following our superiors orders the officers told us we had the necessary strength and morale to resist we were really motivated we believed we could fight and win the war at that moment our whole future was at stake [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] roles were clearly handed out military leaders were dispatched to the different regions of Iraq but these leaders refus to obey the orders of the political leaders contrary to what was said the political leaders didn't make decisions for the military leaders in the context of preparing for war the room for maneuver of the military command was considerably reduced due to the power of the politicians the opposite is true the political leaders were spread over three regions the South Center and the North were placed under the leadership of military leaders because it was a military conflict all Iraqi Army leaders knew that Sadam had formed three main Regional military axes one in the north one in the center and one in the South to lead them he appointed non-military men Alin al- maid Kus Saddam Hussein and is alri Ali Hassan al- maid Alias chemical alley was the man who did saddam's Dirty Work the bloodthirsty Liquidator among other exploits of the Kurds Kus Saddam Hussein was naturally primed to take over from his father as for ISAT Ibrahim alurri he had always been saddam's right-hand man in politics later the King of Clubs would be one of the few to escape the clutches of the Americans and secretly carry on his political career among the ranks of the insurgents none of them had any link with the military or any idea of iraqi's military history it created an unspeakable mess and a general feeling of anxiety but how much longer before we as a council we as the United Nations say enough enough Iraq to declared 8500 lers of Anthrax I remember in kuwa we're in the big tent with my soldiers and there's a TV there and Colin pal was giving his speech up at the UN and I'm sitting there watching him intently and just sort of out loud I said this guy doesn't believe what he's saying and a couple of my officers turned to me and said sir what are you talking about you know you're sitting out there uh you have the uh not just the first Marine Division out in the quati desert uh you have uh you have you know half of the US Army you have Air Force Navy everybody's out there and you're thinking sometimes it's just like that the avalan that started and it's like how do you stop it you kind of don't we opened up a Pandora's Box out there and we weren't really prepared to to deal with the whole consequence of [Music] that Iraq was living in a bubble totally cut off back then we had no cell phones or satellite TV Iraqis could watch only state-run channels the only ones allowed same for the Press there were only five newspapers and all of them told the same story the only difference between them was the font they used for their headlines all news in Iraq was coated in lead there were no satellite channels but we listened to the French radio station RMC all Iraqis listened to that or to the BBC World Service they heard the voices of the opposition in Exile and the appeals they launched we knew the war was lost in advance 100% Lost the tv technicians refitted the basement Studios which had been deserted and they started working in an experimental way the anchormen came down and started broadcasting from there we had a sense of urgency but no one told us anything [Music] officially I believe the account in Kuwait was the time the war kicked off I want to say there were 750 journalists that's a lot of that's a lot of reporters photographers producers of every of every type um that's a lot of people out on the battlefield that's almost an entire ban right there did reports on people who had come from Jordan Syria and Palestine lots of youngsters arrived to enlist in an organization called the F of Saddam they weren't called the FED of Iraq but the FED of Saddam they were trained by the bat party Big Wigs trained to blow themselves up to fight and to handle weapons these guys were dispatched throughout the country we puted fun at ourselves we knew there was a National Defense plan but in the case of an American chemical attack or aerial bombardments our training would prove useless would we have time to take cover we were in a ridiculous situation but had to obey we were unusually worried the officers knew we could be defeated in a single [Music] day all the efforts were focused on protecting bat party and government buildings and on nothing else normal citizens had to fend for themselves to feed their families and protect their friends and loved ones for us to stock up especially as we heris love to eat the authorities handed out rations every two months we were ready for anything even a chemical attack we sealed the windows with nylon and we were ready but we were scared scared of not knowing the outcome and of not knowing what lay in store [Music] C Communications indicate One Division southeast of bad is about to be issued chemical weapons to be used to against the Invaders when we were still in Kuwait like in the days leading up to the invasion we were constantly told Saddam has chemical we for sure and he will use them but it was all very scary stuff because you know they were they were giving us these syringes and telling us that we had to inject our thighs to to counteract the gas or we would [Music] die come on come [Music] on at the time I felt like a camera moving from one place to another I was observing what people were going through there was kind of a NeverEnding weight the regime Was preparing for war all the people were going about their daily business they went to the pool watched TV read books they saw themselves as extras in a drama drama had begun but they weren't really part of [Music] it Saddam called a big meeting on the first day of 2003 his vision of things had become metaphysical and religious he came out with something that made me shiver and chilled me to the Bone he said I know the Iraqi Army is weak very weak compared to the American Army but Allah has no other Army than ours a holy Miracle will happen the Americans will reach the gates of Baghdad and we will beat them and when you return Victorious from this battle I will tell you now go west free Jerusalem from the Israelis and put the Palestinians back on their land to my mind this was the closing speech of the Iraqi [Applause] [Music] [Applause] movie a week before the war Saddam stopped appearing on TV to give his speeches we'd receive a sound recording which we listened to transcribed and read out on air the anchor had to read out about 60 or 70 Pages during the broadcast sometimes we ran late and the proof reader had to sit at the Anchor's feet handing him the pages one by one it made us suspicious there were two possibilities either Saddam looked too weak to appear on screen or he had left [Music] Baghdad From saddam's perspective he saw you know threats regular threats to him and there were regular threats he was quite correct um so he tended to withdraw he tended to trust people even less he tended to not trust those who came from outside of his his family or tribe he tended not to trust Those whom he didn't control directly in Saddam Hussein's Inner Circle were his two sons one of them udai a rather disturbing figure openly displayed his image as a lover of big cats everything was set up for him to show off his pathological power and ferocity udai was as unreliable as he was unpredictable when war was announced his father put him in charge of the militia which suited his nature the fedin of [Music] Sadam the other son Kus had learned from his father that absolute power could only last if it was carried out in Cold Blood Saddam Hussein had made him Supreme head of his Elite Army the Republican guard and of his secret service he saw cus alone as his successor in the war preparations the heir of the r despite his lack of military experience became a main decision maker the minister of defense was only there for show he was nothing compared to Cass Cass had the first and last [Music] word we had a very dangerous role as a kind of family screen around Hussein it meant acting as his eyes and ears bringing him messes from the outside or concealing things from him we either told him what he wanted to hear or hid what he didn't want to hear one of the key individuals for Saddam throughout the 1990s and up to the war was his presidential secretary a guy by the name of Abid abud [Music] Abed Hamm ran all the security departments in saddam's name except for the special secret service run by Kus at his father's request Abed Hamm shut off all communication routes to Sadam this was a guy who knew who went in to see Saddam he knew what Saddam decided he knew what came out of saddam's office he knew as much about Iraq and the regime as anyone other than Saddam he knew more even than the sons Abed hamud was the only man allowed to carry a gun in saddam's presence always at his side he was everywhere filtering everything keeping an eye on everything later when the American offensive started he would prove particularly useful and loyal by stashing saddam's money and weapons [Music] a few weeks before the outbreak of War he met with several leaders of the Republican guard who wanted to inform Sadam of the true state of the army Abed hammud told them this if I give you the privilege of addressing Sadam you will have two obligations to be resolutely optimistic and to satisfy him with what you say Saddam saw the officers and spoke with them they said nothing and applauded him at the [Applause] end we managed to catch Bush's speech with our satellite dishes that was the only way we could hear it Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours that's when we knew something serious was about to happen [Music] in fact our vision of Iraq and its Army was wrong we had no real idea of how bad the shortages were due to the Embargo Iraq had been bled dry it was an empty shell one Blow from the outside and it would collapse we had never imagined [Music] that they took up position in every street in the capital which became one one big army base the backat party dug trenches and set up walls of sandbags in the streets they were trying to fool everyone into thinking the regime could hold out that they were in control of the situation and that the Americans would enter neither Iraq nor Baghdad there were also smoke clouds which according to Sadam would prevent the Americans from targeting the regime's positions [Music] a few days before the fighting started the US Air Force dropped pamphlets calling for the Iraqi people to rise up against Saddam a lot of regions were showered with pamphlets a tactic that escaped the control of Sadam Security Forces [Music] in Amara we received pamphlets urging us to Desert or face destruction they said that we were defending Injustice and that they were defending Justice we only really understood when bath party members started going door too District by District handing out weapons [Music] we couldn't Advance couldn't Retreat we were mere ponds the Minister of Defense lost control of the troops Army Headquarters had no further role in running [Music] operations it was late winter we couldn't watch weather forecasts on TV it was the time of the Tara the time of sandstorms the mood was one of great sadness [Music] at that point I realized it was the Moment of Truth the final battle Baghdad was deserted the only sound was silence we had the feeling the whole city belonged to us but while we were acutely aware of what the city meant to us we knew this feeling would disappear everything was cloaked in silence one of my friends said the city has gone mute and another one answered him if the city has stopped talking it means it's dead this city is already dead ADM it on March 19th 2003 at dawn we were informed that the air traffic control Radars had picked up more than 20 planes in Iraqi airspace to the South [Music] these planes had flown within 180 km of Baghdad before turning round and heading back south but on the second day the so-called shock and awe offensive truly began and Baghdad was bombed with Incredible intensity the explosion started Before Dawn they were really loud but I wasn't scared I watched the show with the planes and the anti-aircraft fire through the window it was like a big firework display but the detonations were [Music] terrifying the air bombardment started with cruise missiles then the US Air Force filled the Iraqi Skies I was at home when I heard the attack I quickly put on my armor uniform the Minister of Defense had relocated six hqs around Baghdad people started packing up their belongings I saw them in my neighborhood carrying blankets Furniture supplies flour they were load holding up their cars and waiting for Daybreak before leaving it was a dramatic image that reminded me of piling up corpses to take them to a mass grave at that moment it was as if Baghdad had disappeared I arrived at the assembly point the minister was already there along with all his officers with their experience of the 1990 Gulf War American planes knew how to Target our anti-aircraft defenses the fact that these had been positioned in residential areas gave citizens all the more reason to flee the city my neighborhood was bombed I remember telling my family I wouldn't leave the house because I wanted to watch what was happening as they left my family was Furious because they thought the war would destroy everything the buildings and their [Music] inhabitants from the Kuwaiti border 500 armored vehicles and 170,000 troops would now be Unleashed leashed on Iraq among them the Third Battalion of the fourth Marines regiment led by Colonel Brian McCoy a war leader looked up to by his [Music] men McCoy was a Cuban cigar lover with a bizarre ritual before every battle he would whistle the well-known Brazilian tune the girl from Iona the radio name he chose for himself was dark side a nod to the Star Wars movies that morning McCoy whose mission was to advance on the capital was still unaware that due to a statue on Paradise Square he would become the man who conquered [Music] Baghdad I don't dude I uh we're seeing some uh rocket flashes from the from the left here uh that's what West this camera is facing north uh we're not really sure what it is uh we might have thought it was gas we dawned our masks and then uh we were told to to cease and desist everything was all clear uh I'm speaking during this video for documentation purposes it was very dark it was very scary up there because it was just say and and you kind of didn't even know where the Border was we we kept moving around and changing position waiting for the final announcement that that that the invasion was launched and what I did to start with was I was in the Humvee with Colonel McCoy at the beginning of all this at the time hoping that I would be able to see enough combat that was going on but you know he was a well protected guy so you know saved my life I think one of the um sort of defining thoughts as we went across a burm into Iraq W with myself and most soldiers uh and and that was sort of all of the unknowns I was following with military High command and the secret Services the battle that had started in the South there were undeniable signs of a mass offensive among them openings made in the wall of sand separating Kuwait and [Music] Iraq we cross at a place called softon the two governments are dug a big ditch and put a big uh burm up to distinguish where the international border lies [Music] we're up front so we're going to be one of the first ones going but you're waiting for your turn so you wait you wait you wait but when your time comes you charge through there because it's a choke point you got to get through there very [Music] fast got to keep it clear so that units can just keep pushing as rapidly as we can and we're not bottled up there which would be a good place for the enemy to attack [Music] finally made it man where are we just crossed the border to Iraq about 10 miles ago [Music] destination at around 400 p.m. the first clashes started in nazera and in bazra where there was a regiment to protect the oil fields as it was [Music] inas we have a lot of units coming their way and the first one I engaged it was a t-54 tank and uh exploded it was uh not very dramatic or anything like that it just was pretty much the way we had been trained to do it quired him engaged him shot him killed [Music] him I was at home when the war started we joined up with our army units following the Rice's speech we had already dug personal trenches we handed out wages equipment and Munitions in the trenches the tanks took up position but that night was hell for [Music] us when the war started I was on the Saudi Border in the um alhu region [Music] we were attacked during the night by helicopters we were in a state of total confusion it was the first war we'd ever been in we'd only just join the Army after graduating from [Music] college that was awesome and uh we were a Ford observation unit there were three of us two officers offers and one soldier all we had was one Kalashnikov each I was in charge of two strella missiles but I couldn't even get out and launch them due to the bad situation we were [Music] [Applause] [Music] in on the first day the US Air Force was cautious but this caution gradually disappeared and planes started swooping down above our trenches they were having fun they're terrible memories absolutely [Music] terrifying every night lasted an eternity the bombings were non-stop at sunup you discover a tank blown up here a dead body there the quartermaster burned to [Music] Cinders one night the Americans bombed the suppli store not far from my position I woke up and all I could see were flames in the morning I saw that the gasoline stocks and tankers had all burned my face was black and deformed from the suit that had spread everywhere during the night [Music] [Music] when I entered Iraq it was like what you can imagine of what you see on television about Iraq the flat desert the White Sands the tents the bnds and the uh and the areas associated with with with that but as we got closer to Baghdad it sort of became a uh it sort of became not necessarily a paradise but there was a lot of you know a lot of trees and a lot of vegetation [Music] we were in our attack formations going across the sparsely populated area in Western Iraq and you would come upon these betwin tribes that by Nature they move around the desert with their animals from grazing area to grazing area and so you literally had almost two eras of uh of um times in history uh come in contact with each [Music] other the batt ons kind of look up and just wondering like who are these people on these tanks and how it's just sort of driving by they seem to be very friendly people they're waving and exchanging pleasantries and all that so it was very kind of a surreal [Music] moment you can imagine you know you have an alien in your local community I mean we don't want to be there you know consistently throughout the years we want to be able able to transition into a stable government and to help the Iraqi people and I think that's what they were looking for [Music] there did start to be use of the term [ __ ] [ __ ] is an Arab term that refers to somebody who has gone on the Hajj to Mecca you're supposed to do at some time in your life if you're Muslim but nobody wanted to make it like ugly or pejorative once you're in a combat zone and there's fighting and you watch your friend die at the hands of somebody who looks like that or who acts like that speaks like that then [ __ ] becomes like then it's no longer hey that [ __ ] was here now it's like well [ __ ] [Music] [ __ ] I tried to think rationally but I could see in this war some mysterious dimension [Music] due to the all technological power that could reduce everything to a [Music] mirage I kept questioning myself ethically can I be for a war that will result in regime change or should I be against it because I'm a writer and I don't believe in resorting to violence [Music] [Applause] [Music] at Daybreak I was supposed to go to work my father wanted to leave the house and go somewhere safer outside the capital he thought the war was only to get Saddam Hussein but to reach him Baghdad would have to burn like in previous Wars my mother had a more religious view if it's written that we shall die then we shall die if it's written that we shall live then we shall live I felt uneasy about both my father's View and my mother's view Baghdad wasn't its bridges and buildings it was us our neighbors and our [Music] friends I insisted on going to work but my mother and father refused despite that a car came for me at 10:00 and I [Music] left I cried I was so sad I crossed the bridge of the Republic and I saw government headquarters and the Ministries in flames the radio was broadcasting a speech by Saddam in a form of poetry stay and resist the war has begun [Music] [Applause] [Music] that this a going to work roads I got either we're almost there or we're not even close it was uh mostly desert as we we were out to the west of the main Highway avoiding the the cities of course third INF division on the west side of the uh Euphrates River and the Marines were on the east side of the river had already moved [Music] up we killed a lot of Iraqis on the first day and it's very easy for us to defeat them and we pulled into our position at first night and I spoke to my Gunner a marine named corpal corpal rer and I said almost doesn't even seem fair does it he said no staff are not you just keep pulling the trigger you don't don't worry about that you you'll figure out how to live with it later but you just keep pulling that [Music] trigger McCoy just said this to the Marin he said Keep keep your honor clean remember that you don't want to get back to the United States you don't want to get done with this and and feel like you you've sulled yourself or dirted yourself like don't do the wrong do the right thing always do the right thing keep your honor clean fight with a happy heart and let's go do our nation's business right on day one our tanks destroyed by American Plains like at a turkey shoot the battle was lost in advance we just wondered when it would be over where it would happen What limits they would set themselves what the fate of the Iraqi people would be and what would happen to our mothers and children those were the things we were worried about [Music] a few tanks made it to dibat but once there they were bombed from then on our unit broke up the senior officer fled along with all the other officers it felt like a tree had come down on me we clearly weren't looking for major battles we were looking for possibilities of launching small attacks on them over this rise came a number of pickup trucks I said really kind of Civilian pickup trucks but they had machine guns mounted on the back and then they had fighters in the back with RPG rocket launchers and things like that and they started engaging our tanks it was clear that these white pickup trucks were not friendly vehicles and in fact were were what were going to become one of the major enemy [Music] elements when I used to write poems questioning the regime I would disguise it to protect myself in case it fell into the Authority's hands then for the very first time I felt the regime had reached its end for the very first time I could write freely with my hand and reread with the expectant eyes of someone awaiting that end most of those close to Saddam left to take refuge in places far away from where they had been posted many of the big wigs in the regime left their governorates to go back to their hometowns basically the highest placed bath party members fled the Battleground and sought Refuge outside Iraq they hadn't planned anything for after the war with during the first days of the war there was a famous press conference given by the Minister of Defense Sultan Hashem the only professional soldier on the defense team the Army Chief Sultan Hashem had predicted that the Americans would be inside Baghdad within two weeks which is what happened just after this press conference it was practically an order for the Army to lay down its weapons because if the defense minister was so sure of the outcome what was the point in fighting we took advantage of a unique opportunity when an endless three-day Sandstorm blew up during the night of March 25th to 26 [Music] just kept building stronger and we were all afraid because it was like well okay we're just going to we're just going to sit here and wait this Sandstorm out but like what if the Iraqis are going to use this this is their territory they could just come and attack us h

Channel: Real Stories

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Keywords: 2003 Iraq War, Baghdad history war, Baghdad invasion details, Baghdad military deployment, Baghdad war documentary, Baghdad war experiences, Baghdad war footage, Iraq War insight documentary, Iraq invasion human side, Real Stories, US invasion of Baghdad, US military in Baghdad, human experiences in war, inside look at the Gulf War, invasion of Iraq documentary, narrative of Iraqi conflict, stories from the conflict, war in Iraq documentary, wartime struggles in Iraq

Id: a5sJlwRrfeQ

Length: 67min 7sec (4027 seconds)

Published: Sat May 11 2024