Airdate: The Iraq War

ABC will screen a three part documentary on The Iraq War with interviews from several of the key players, many publicly acknowledging their mistakes.

How did the United States and Britain come to make so many mistakes in Iraq? This is one of the great mysteries of the last decade. Never before have the big players from Washington, London and Baghdad told the inside story.

In the three-part documentary The Iraq War, which premieres Sunday August 11 at 9.25pm on ABC1, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Tony Blair, Saddam’s foreign minister, his general in charge of dealing with weapons of mass destruction and other insiders describe how they wrestled with the big decisions – and with each other.

They describe just how, before the invasion, they got it so wrong about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, and how afterwards – in the eyes of the Iraqis – the US and its allies turned from liberators to occupiers. George Bush’s team describe their desperate struggle to end the killing which has claimed over 100,000 lives – and get out.

Those closest to Saddam Hussein, the top US and British politicians, the key generals who played a role in the invasion of the country, and the Iraqis who have since taken control, describe key moments in which they were themselves centrally involved.

Never before have the people responsible themselves publicly described their mistakes.

Episode 1: Regime Change – Sunday August 11 at 9.25pm on ABC1
Tony Blair recounts how he flew to President Bush’s private retreat at Camp David to go head to head with Vice President Dick Cheney. Colin Powell explains how he came to make his disastrous presentation to the United Nations. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw describes how he – and even President Bush himself – tried to persuade Tony Blair that to join in the invasion was political suicide.

Sunday August 11 at 9.25pm on ABC1