- Title: Iraq: Journey Into Madness
- Date: 19th October 2003
- Summary: Six months after the official end of combat,there are fears of "strategic failure" in Iraq. Travelling from Basra to Baghdad,reporter Sam Kiley finds these fears well founded. In a documentary trailing a week of special reports from Iraq on Channel 4 News ,Kiley finds a country teetering on the brink of collapse into a failed state. It's not just the Americans who stand accused of ill-treating and shooting dead civilians. As he makes his way north from Basra,Kiley heads to the desert town of Majar al-Kabir,where four local men were shot dead by British Paratroopers in June - killings which triggered the murder of six British military policemen. Kiley discovers that in their hunt for the killers,British troops are said to have employed brutal interrogation techniques - against men who were later released without charge. Kiley obtains a letter of apology to local townsfolk from the officer commanding British forces - but when he visits the main British base,the army spokesman fails to explain how the beatings could have happened or identify which units are said to have been involved. In Baghdad,some victims of American occupation have spent weeks in legal limbo,languishing in Abu Ghraib prison,the erstwhile headquarters of Saddam's terror-state. Now they're guarded by US soldiers and denied the rights even of Prisoners of War. "Only the uniforms have changed," Kiley's told. The occupying armies face worsening odds as Saddam's diehard supporters,militant nationalists and other,darker forces who want America's mission to fail,sabotage efforts to rebuild the country. Electricity pylons are blown up daily,oil pipelines smashed and hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil siphoned off and stolen daily. But as he travels through the country,Kiley comes to realise that the damage done to Iraq's national psyche after 35 years of repression may prove even harder to fix than broken power lines and pipelines. Fewer and fewer Iraqis now dare to admit they approved of this year's invasion. So far,a small minority is waging the war of resistance - most Iraqis consider the coalition to be on probation - but the clock is ticking. In Basra,Kiley's told that if Iraqis don't get the security and the amenities they need to lead normal lives,they threaten to launch their own uprising. Having spent most of their lives under Saddam's vicious dictatorship,and survived three wars and 12 years of sanctions,few are optimistic that the pain will end any time soon. But if it doesn't,no one should be surprised when a wave of suicide bombings ushers in a new chapter in the saga of post-war Iraq. Director: Jonathan Miller
- Description:Jon Snow reports from Iraq on the realities of the reconstruction process.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:Mentorn Barraclough Carey Productions Ltd.
- Programme Episode:Episode 1
- Transmission Date:19/10/2003
- Rights:Worldwide
- Decade: 2000s