Iraq 20 years on: Return to Baghdad
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 22 March 2023
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
Twenty years on, the invasion of Iraq is widely seen as a fiasco. But still today the conflict has ongoing consequences for Iraq and Iraqis. Times correspondent Catherine Philp is back in Baghdad to meet people and hear how they were affected then - and now.
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Guests:
- Catherine Philp, Diplomatic Correspondent, The Times.
- Dr Saad Eskander, historian and director of the Iraq National Library and Archives.
- Bader Katr, translator.
- Iraqi family in Sadr city.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Producer: Olivia Case.
Clips: BBC, CBS, AP, Al Jazeera, Journeyman Pictures, CNN, The Washington Post.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | 20 years ago, Britain and America went to war in Iraq. |
| 0:13.7 | On Tuesday night, I gave the order for British forces to take part in military action |
| 0:18.1 | in Iraq. |
| 0:19.1 | Now, this is what it looked and sounded like in Baghdad. |
| 0:25.2 | As bombs rained down on Baghdad, the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, was holed up in |
| 0:31.8 | the capital, trying to plot the fight back. |
| 0:35.9 | This evening, Iraqi television showed President Saddam Hussein meeting some of his most trusted |
| 0:40.8 | commanders. |
| 0:42.1 | They were discussing how to withstand the attacks as a map of Iraq was spread out on the |
| 0:47.0 | table in front of them. |
| 0:50.9 | Meanwhile, our woman on the ground was in the north of the country on her way to Baghdad. |
| 0:59.6 | I was just north of Mosul trying to get as close as possible so that we could get a sense |
| 1:04.4 | of the campaign there. |
| 1:07.0 | That's Catherine Felt. |
| 1:08.8 | She's the diplomatic correspondent for the Times. |
| 1:13.6 | From the very start of the invasion, Catherine has reported on Iraq returning again and again |
| 1:21.0 | to cover the chaos of the war and its often violent aftermath. |
| 1:27.3 | And now, two decades on from those first reports, she's back. |
| 1:35.5 | I'm speaking to you from Baghdad, where I've returned as the 20th anniversary of the American |
| 1:42.7 | invasion is upon us. |
| 1:50.1 | This is Catherine's account of the people she's met, of the lives and the country they |
| 2:02.8 | rebuilt. |
... |
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