Ron Barr and Sports Byline USA LIVE from Iraq

We spent a half a day touring some of Saddam Hussein’s palaces. I saw several of them from the cockpit of the C-130 as we were approaching Baghdad. The ones I saw from the air were huge and were surrounded by water. As I mentioned earlier, water in the Iraqi culture represents power. Baghdad is dead flat, except for two hills. And, those hills were created from the dirt dug out in order to make the bodies of water around Hussein’s palaces. Aside from the Al Faw Palace where we stayed and broadcast from, and now is the U.S. Command Headquarters, we saw three other palaces. Continue Story...

One palace was called Victory over Iran, to commemorate what Hussein considers to be an Iraqi victory in the war with Iran. That claim is highly debatable. The other two palaces are memorable and laughable. The Victory over America Palace was unfinished when we invaded in 2003. Today, it’s not only unfinished, but it’s also damaged from U.S. bombs. The enormity of the VOA Palace is mind boggling. As we walked through it, I couldn’t help but think of how much money was spent building it. Money that could have gone to helping his people. He built it to satisfy his ego and impress the Iraqi people of his power. When the U.S. invaded Iraq, the palace was three-fourths completed. It had a ballroom that was the length of a football field, with windowed rooms overlooking the ballroom. On the grounds he also had a smaller housing palace where he kept his women. In fact, practically everyone of his nearly 70 palaces across the country had places to house Saddam and his son’s harem. I asked our military tour guide, “How many women does one guy need and how in the hell did he satisfy all or any of them?” There was no answer. Another note, the staff at all of his palaces were required to prepare a meal for him each day in case that palace was where he came to eat that night. Seventy dinners to pick and choose from.

From a balcony high in the VOA Palace and overlooking the lake surrounding the palace, we saw a weird looking building. I say weird because it didn’t look like any of his other palaces, and certainly not as big. It looked like a kiddie palace, and it was. We were told that was the “Flintstone Palace.” I’m not making this up. Saddam built the palace for kids to live in and it was built after the Flinstones home. So, picture Fred and Wilma’s place and you know what I’m talking about. Here’s the kicker, Saddam was a big fan of the Flintstones and it was the ONLY American television program he allowed the Iraqi people to watch. Maybe trying to service all his women made him wacky.

A building, a third of the way into the lake surrounding the VOA Palace housed Hussein’s Baath political party. The building was a major attack point when the invasion of Iraq began. The building is as it was after the attacks. As we walked around inside, we saw the swimming pool where Saddam had his enemies and those he disliked murdered. In another part of the building I stood in a room of total destruction and rubble. The room was a conference room that was holding a meeting of the top Baath Party power players when it was struck by several JDAMs or smart bombs. The story is, the U.S. had told Saddam that they would invade within 48 hours. The Baath party members were meeting to discuss what to do when the U.S. decided not to wait 48 hours and bombed the place. The ultimate gotcha. There were no bodies to be recovered. The bombs were so destructive that all in the room were obliterated. I stood in the midst of the death and destruction and reflected on how those in this room were living one moment, and the next, their lives and souls ceased to exist.