Once Upon a Time in Iraq

CHILDREN CHEER

May 2003.

In the weeks following the invasion of Iraq,

American troops were welcomed onto the streets of Baghdad.

No Saddam. No Saddam.

That sense of joy was a definite truth.

Now, the question is - how long did it last?

And that was not long.

Iraq was in absolute chaos.

What's been going on here?

A fucking war's going on.

GUNSHOTS

The regime of Saddam Hussein is no more.

America's more secure.

The world is more peaceful.

And the long-suffering people of Iraq are now free.

The politicians have had their say.

The evidence about Saddam having actual biological

and chemical weapons has turned out to be wrong.

In this series, the story of the Iraq War

is told by the civilians, journalists and soldiers

who lived through the 2003 invasion

and the years of chaos that continue to this day.

Through their eyes,

we'll see how events in Iraq have changed the world.

Ultimately, war -

it's a kind of laboratory of the human condition in extremis.

YELLING

You see the best of people and you see the worst.

You see moments of incredible heroism,

and also hatred and irresponsibility.

You know, I think back to Iraq 2003 kind of as the best year

and worst year of my life.

When I got back, I mean, my kids didn't know me

and I didn't know them. At all.

It was weird being back here.

Yeah, and I didn't do good with the reintegration.

I mean, you drive on a highway,

all I could think about for a while was waiting for the IED blast.

And I'm driving, this guy comes around

and totally gives me the finger, and I swear to God,

if I'd had my 9mm, I would have blown his brains out right there.

It would've taken me two seconds.

I was out of control, man.

And I'll never fire a weapon again.

Ever.

Protect and strengthen this band of brothers

as we endeavour to do your will.

A month after the invasion, there were 150,000 US troops across Iraq.

It is for you that we battle.

Lt Col Nate Sassaman led a battalion of almost 1,000 soldiers.

Send along your congratulations to Sgt Howard, as well.

OK, men, that's all I got. You guys are doing a great job.

Yeah, I'm good, I'm there.

I'm right there.

I'm back in Iraq right now.

I rarely go back there.

And frankly, I don't talk about it at all. Ever.

Unless I'm with a veteran.

Nate Sassaman, son of a Methodist minister, star quarterback,

total star in the Army, destined to be a general.

Sassaman was the most impressive officer I met in Iraq.

Dexter Filkins covered the Iraq War for the New York Times.

He wrote about Sassaman's year-long tour.

What Sassaman, I think, experienced was perfect microcosm

for what happened in the war at large.

Hi, I'm Lt Col Nate Sassaman,

former West Point quarterback for 1984,

and the battalion commander for 1st Battalion 8th Infantry Regiment

serving here in Balad, Iraq.

I'd like to introduce you to my special friend...

I seem to be a likeable fella.

I kind of wanted to meet everybody.

How about a little raki coffee here to go with my prayers?

I knew virtually almost nothing on Iraq and the Muslim culture,

as a commander who then got to control

one of the main provinces in the country of Iraq.

Yeah.

In the early days, I actually think we were trying to go in there

and make it right for the folks.

Get some stability.

We would be doing the noble thing of helping reconstruct this country.

This place is Adhamiyah District.

First of all, it's a very old district here in Baghdad.

Second of all, it's very, very public...

After the invasion, things were changing so fast.

Like, you turn from a kid into...

..someone that has to be rigid, cold, you know,

and it's like, just to survive.

Waleed Nesyif lived in Baghdad and was 18 when the war started.

As an English speaker,

he managed to secure a job as a translator for foreign journalists.

We're going to go now for a very, very public place,

so we have to be careful, OK?

One of the things that I used to do is basically drive around the city.

Take a journalist with me and we'd just drive around.

It's a ghost town...

..that is destroyed - either by bombs or looting.

And then Iraqis were under this impression, it's like,

"OK, this is the greatest power in the world.

"They're going to come and rebuild everything in, like, months."

Month one passed, there's still no electricity, there's still no water.

Baghdad became like a city of garbage.

You know, like, even during Saddam's time, man,

like, I remember Baghdad was clean.

There was sanitation. And now, it's just like...

And you're meant to continue functioning as a sane human being.

Six weeks after the invasion,

George W Bush landed on an aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego.

Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.

In the Battle of Iraq, the United States

and our allies have prevailed.

CHEERING

"Mission accomplished."

Yeah?

Seriously?

And now, our coalition is engaged in securing

and reconstructing that country.

That was the time, again, when people started questioning.

You know, it was like, "OK, well, since mission is accomplished

"and everything is good right now, when is security going to be there?"

Because there is no security.

GUNSHOTS

You know, all this by American support.

It happen by the American support.

People started taking matters within their own hands, right?

So, for instance,

security starting being imposed by the people of the neighbourhood.

EXPLOSION

Everybody had a gun.

Strange car comes in, it's like, "Who the fuck are you?

"What do you want? Who are you coming to visit?"

Americans will pass by, they didn't really give a shit.

I remember this image, literally, of a guy with a donkey

pulling a cart with Katyusha rocket launcher on it.

Just driving on the street, you know,

and the Americans passing by, "Hello."

What is he going to do with it?

Use it or sell it, right?

Simple things are what we were asking for.

Very simple.

Dignity, electricity, and some semblance of security.

These things, had they happened,

Iraqis would not have reacted in the way they did to the American Army.

The Star-Spangled Banner

OK, please be seated. We'll have a few words from Col Sassaman.

I pray for a lot of things every day.

But mostly, I pray for wisdom.

I pray for wisdom...

There's this euphoria feeling that, wow, you're in a foreign land...

..we got a bunch of forces here, we've got a mission.

You know, what is my... What is...

You know, how am I going to make...

..the best progress

in this 750 sq km area that I've been given as my area of operation?

Sassaman's battalion was stationed just over 50 miles

north of Baghdad, in the city of Balad.

It's right there in the heart of the Sunni Triangle.

We're smack dab in the middle, and this is our home now for the next...

..for the next year.

On a map, if you start with Baghdad

and go out to basically the Jordanian border,

and then up to Mosul, and then down the Tigris,

it looks like a triangle.

That's where... That's where the majority of the Sunnis are.

Saddam Hussein was born in the Sunni Triangle.

Sassaman and his men found themselves

amongst his most ardent supporters.

How you doing?

That, I think, is like the first time

I accepted an invitation from a sheikh.

Trying to, like, set up some kind of dialogue.

Right here?

It was believed that if the Army won the hearts and minds

of the Iraqi people, that security, democracy,

and the reconstruction efforts would all fall into place.

The way I was winning hearts and minds

was engaging with you in dialogue.

I don't know, I was always trying to find some common ground

and to talk to the sheikhs or the leaders.

Frank, can you get it... Can you get it any closer to me, Frank?

That's what I want to know.

All the soldiers that I was talking to, they said,

"You've got to spend some time with Col Sassaman."

Like, "He's the guy."

And you could tell he had kind of a wider view of the war.

It's my job, along with the sheikhs, to maintain the peace

so that we can rebuild Iraq with dollars.

Along with everything else, we want to be able to get electricity

to everybody all the time.

The Iraqis, like, loved him.

They were, like, gathering around him.

He was incredibly charismatic.

If there's any country in the world that needs a little peace,

it's right here in Iraq.

They quickly realised I enjoy a Coca-Cola.

And I would hold it up and I would go,

"Man, what a great world we live in."

That, like, a Judeo-Christian white man

can come over into your country and we can drink Coke together.