Iraq: One Year On

War – for the public and people in the firing line – is about death, destruction, terror and violence. For certain sectors of the PR community, it’s a business opportunity. Ask those US PRs who were paid in oil for the counsel they gave Sadaam over the years; or those who constructed the “babies ripped from hospital incubators” fiction that was so crucial in shifting public opinion to back the first Gulf War. Whilst politicians (justifiably) take the flak for their decisions over Iraq, the consultants who sold the show slip into the shadows. I’m currently interviewing journalists and activists as part of “Iraq: One Year On” (to be broadcast this Thursday on BBC 3): some of the things they witnessed were a little bizarre. Anton Antonavich tells me that a large number of the desks at the Ministry of Information were stuffed full of *iagra.