Once Upon a Time in Iraq

So sad. Hard to watch even harder to understand why. Why?

If you only watch one documentary series this year please please please watch this, it's absolutely heartbreaking for both sides.

I was glued to my seat throughout each episode. This excellent documentary series gives an essential insight into the reality of the Iraq war. Honest, open interviews with civilians and soldiers are often stirring and sinister, but no matter the side they are on, their humanity along with their flaws are laid bare. I hope that both American and British politicians of those of the era including Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush and Blair watch this, along with their current counterparts.

This incredible series of documentaries shows what really happened before, during and after the Iraqi war. Through archive footage and interviews with journalists, ex-soldiers and Iraqi people it lays bare the truth of the war, stripped of the allied media and political propaganda of the time. It's a tragic story, though very illuminating to see so many people admit and explain all the stupid mistakes made by the American and allies. Heartbreaking too to see the impact of this war on ordinary Iraqi families and individuals. There is no doubt that misplaced invasion and interference of the West into Middle-Eastern politics and culture sowed the seeds of the terrorist threat we all live with today. Should be required viewing for politicians and all leaders worldwide. Perhaps they could learn something from their predecessors' ugly mistakes.

Where do I even begin, the series is brilliant in every single way it's a breathtaking, once you've seen it and seen the emotion that these people have inside them from these events they lived through and experienced. The archive of footage they show as brutal and barbaric as it is to look at it's so hard to look away at the same time because it's so hard to believe a lot of this isn't even fiction let alone that it all happened so recently. The people they interview every single ones perspective on this conflict is just so different and the way they talk and the role they played is fascinating.