Iraq - A Newsnight Special
One year ago this week, the bombs began falling on Baghdad. Within weeks the Iraqi capital had fallen, and Saddam Hussein had been deposed.
In a special programme we reassessed the past year. The International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, faced a panel of sceptical voters, chosen from the group who confronted the Prime Minster on a Newsnight Special just weeks before the war broke out. Some have become pro-war, but most retain strong objections to the conflict, and fears for what it will mean for the future.
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Iraqi opinion poll:
Key results of the survey
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We had an exclusive poll of British opinion, which suggests a majority think the war was the right thing to do, and would trust Tony Blair more than his Conservative and Liberal Democrat rivals, if we were to have to make a similar decision in future. We also had details of the first country-wide poll of Iraqis since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
The war has left a divide in Britain between those who see America as our principal ally and a force for good in the world, and those who see it as a global bully, determined to dominate weaker countries. To debate this we brought together the playwright and passionate anti-war protestor, Harold Pinter, and Kenneth Adelman, a White House veteran and strong supporter of President Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq.
Finally we looked to the future with a distinguished cast of thinkers and politicians, including Professor Francis Fukuyama, author of "The End of History", whose theory on the triumph of liberal capitalism over all other ideologies caused a storm when it was published nearly fifteen years ago, Robert Cooper, now a diplomat and foreign affairs advisor to the European Union but reputed to be a great inspiration to Tony Blair, and the Egyptian novelist and Booker Prize nominee, Ahdaf Soueif.
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