Saddam and family on the outskirts of Baghdad in happier times (well, for them). Photograph: Getty Images
After watching Channel 4's drama-doc Saddam's Tribe last night - a tawdry effort most kindly described as a cross between Dynasty and Midnight Express - I spent a solitary hour on Video Google looking for real documentaries about the dreadful old hooligan and his anarchic regime. After skipping lightly over the snuff section (Watch Saddam Die etc) I came across two documentaries that looked vaguely promising.
The first of these, Saddam - The Trial You Will Never See - was basically a Michael Moore style account of the West's nefarious dealings with Saddam back when he was our mate.
The second, WMD: The Murderous Reign Of Saddam Hussein at least made some effort to examine the criminal nature of Bathism, Saddam and his two psychopathic sons and heirs, Uday and Qusay. However it did so with such tub-thumping American jingoism it became almost impossible to take seriously. This is a shame because, much like Saddam's Tribe, it might have served to remind us that when people now talk about Iraq descending into chaos, they demonstrate just how little they know about Iraq before the Anglo/American invasion. Someone needs to post something serious about this period in our history.
