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Outlook: 'Why I Regret Smashing Saddam's Statue'

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19/03/2013

'Why I Regret Smashing Saddam's Statue'

BBC World Service - Outlook, 'Why I Regret Smashing Saddam's Statue'

The man who took a sledgehammer to a Saddam Hussein statue during the US invasion of Iraq.

Matthew Bannister speaks to Kadhim al-Jubouri, the man who now regrets taking a sledgehammer to a statue of Saddam Hussein during the US invasion of Iraq.

Ten years on, Matthew Bannister hears three different perspectives on the US-led invasion of Iraq. Kadhim al-Jubouri found fame after he was pictured taking a sledgehammer to a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdous Square. But he says he now regrets his actions, as his hopes of a better future remain unfulfilled.

Two young women from Iraqi Kurdistan tell how playing basketball takes their mind off the violence they've seen.

And US Army Ranger Blake Hall, who served in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, describes his successful campaign to get the family of "Roy", his interpreter, a safe haven in the States. Roy's mother, Maladah, gives her thoughts on their new life in California.

Picture: Iraqis in Baghdad's Firdous Sqaure watch Saddam Hussein's statue fall. Credit: PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images.

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