MY CRAZY MEDIA LIFE

PROGRAMME 1: MY BROTHER, THE BOY WHO WENT TO WAR

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Iraq

Situated in the Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iran and Kuwait, it was once known as Mesopotamia. The Muslims conquered Iraq in the 7th century. It is now 75-80% Arab, 15-20% Kurd, 97% Muslim and 3% Christian.

At the end of the First World War, Iraq became a British-mandated territory. It was declared independent in 1932, and in 1945 it joined the United Nations and became a founding member of the Arab League. In 1956, the Baghdad Pact allied Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and the United Kingdom, and established its headquarters in Baghdad.

The Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) devastated the economy of Iraq, despite its declaration of victory.

Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, but a US-led coalition, acting under United Nations (UN) resolutions, expelled Iraq from Kuwait in February 1991. After the war, Kurds in the north and Shi'a Muslims in the south rebelled against the government of Saddam Hussein. The government responded quickly and with crushing force, killing thousands.

The war in Iraq

In November 2002, the UN declared that it would no longer tolerate the Iraqi regime's continuing defiance of international law. It was believed that Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq, was hiding weapons of mass destruction or at least had the capacity to develop them.

On 18 March 2003, President George Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave Iraq or face invasion. On 20 March 2003, Tony Blair, the Prime Minister at the time, declared war (along with the USA). He felt that the fate of many nations rested on the courage of British soldiers to go into Iraq and bring Saddam Hussein's reign to an end. Four years later, there is no end in sight to the conflict and, to date, hundreds of British and US service men and women have been killed as well as tens of thousands Iraqi civilians.