Once Upon a Time in Iraq
up in Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime, dreaming of the America of blue jeans, skateboards and Mcdonald’s that he’d seen in the movies. Then, in 2003, when Neysif was 18, American troops invaded Iraq and the tanks rolled into Baghdad.
‘I was infatuated with the West,’ admits Neysif. ‘When we started to hear the murmurs we were about to be invaded, I was excited. I thought we were about to become a land of dreams.
‘I was pro-war. There was a genuine sense of hope, and then when we saw the statue of Saddam Hussein fall, the belief became more and more cemented that this was actually happening.’
However, as the documentary series Once Upon a Time in Iraq reveals, the dream quickly turned into a nightmare for both the Iraqis and their invaders…
Narrated by Andy Serkis, the series tells the story of the Iraq War through the eyes of the journalists, soldiers and civilians like Neysif who lived through the invasion and the years of chaos that followed, and asks whether the war was a costly mistake that helped sow the seeds of ISIS.
Before the war, Baghdad was considered one of the most
liberal and cosmopolitan cities in the Middle East, despite 24 years of Hussein’s regime.
But within weeks of the invasion, any glimmer of hope that the Iraqi people had about a new era of freedom and democracy vanished.
Soon the whole country became a chaotic power vacuum, with no infrastructure, police or utilities, and there was mass looting of government buildings,
schools and hospitals.
‘I remember watching the city burn, Baghdad just ripped to pieces, and thinking we’re never going to put
this back in the bottle,’ says journalist Dexter Filkins. ‘The Americans dug themselves into a terrible hole.’
Neysif got a job as a translator, earning $50 a month – the same amount as his father earned in six months. But witnessing first-hand what war was like changed his views, and the initial hope felt by him and many fellow Iraqis dwindled as the fighting rumbled on.
‘We were all hopeful at the beginning, but soon after, the myth we were sold unravelled itself into this nightmare, and I got to see the true face of invasion,’ he says.
‘We were free enough during Saddam’s time to go back and forth without worrying about car bombs or Islamic groups. That’s what Saddam provided to Iraq. He was safety and security from everyone else.’