CLARK: Friday night football in Baghdad. Saddam Hussein towers over Iraqis' lives at every turn. But if people here are frightened of war or their leader, they dont show it.
OSAMA EL ITHAWI: There is a goal just pass through the goalkeeper and you heard just the people here laughing and we're having a normal life.
CLARK: Normal perhaps not but Iraqis are battle hardened from years of conflict. Most people in this crowd have never known peace and prosperity, they've grown up in the iron grip of Saddam Hussein and for the past decade their country's been squeezed by economic sanctions. Life isn't about to get better anytime soon. While the outside world prepares for another war, as far as most Iraqis are concerned, the last one never ended. Big, bustling Baghdad exudes energy, the energy of a young country. Two thirds of Iraqis are under 25, they've only ever known Saddam Hussein's Iraq and there's no doubting who's in charge.
UNIVERSITY LECTURER: The novel for this semester is going to be Sons and Lovers to D H Lawrence.
CLARK: Tonight we'll hear from Iraq's future elite, not from the politicians and generals who run the place now, but from the young men and women who'll be the country's teachers, doctors, lawyers and diplomats for decades to come, whatever happens to Saddam. How do they view the threat of war?
HAMSA HUSNI: We might die here. Nobody knows. You might live today, you get bombed tomorrow, you're dead so it's pretty hard and we're pretty paralysed here, you dont know what to do, you dont know what to think.
CLARK: Baghdad University is full of a generation who've grown up under siege to believe that it's Iraq against the rest of the world.
OSAMA EL ITHAWI: My worst fear is to get invaded and occupied by another people, by another government this is the worst thing, that to lose your nationality, lose your freedom.
HAIDER HAMZA: If Bush wants to bomb us, he will bomb us nothing's going to prevent him from doing that but at the same time we have to live our normal lives. I mean we can't just stay in our houses hiding behind the doors waiting for the bombs or for the alarm to break out.
CLARK: Far from staying in their houses, Iraqis are out on the street selling or trying to sell what they can. A television goes for a couple of hundred dollars, it's cash to buy food, to get some supplies in case of war. What people can buy from their own pockets is boosted by a monthly ration of staples part of the oil-for-food program which allows the Iraqi government to sell a limited amount of oil and then import food and other basics under strict UN supervision.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: It's like you have a small coupon and the coupon will entitle every single person in the country to get a supply of rice, sugar, wheat, wheat flour and let's say like some beans, milk, things that can be stored.
CLARK: With war looming, the Iraqi government is giving people an advance on their rations so they can build up a stake at home. It's practical help which also strengthens Saddam's control over people's lives.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: I mean the government did a really great job in handling the situation. The ration, let's say, it's a really good factor, it's like it's not allowing a lot of people to starve, especially in Baghdad. But this system is working unless it's supplemented by import if we can't import for the next two months, we'll have people starving here all over.
CLARK: The economic sanctions against Iraq were meant to break Saddam Hussein's hold on power. Twelve years later, they've done nothing of the sort and are viewed by Iraqis as cruel at worst, idiotic at best.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: I mean we couldnt get pencils for a few years because it had carbon, we could use carbon in nuclear warfare. Come on, kids over here didnt even write in pencil.
CLARK: So does the sanctions policy make any sense from your point of view?
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: Not at all.
CLARK: Uday Jaffa Sadik is 23 years old. He was born in Iraq and went to high school in the United States. He's seen what the west has to offer but sees his future firmly in Iraq.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: I love the life here for some reason or another. It's like, I mean kids here could stay outside until two in the morning, I can stay until two and no one's going to say where were you or what happened, were worried. Life is safe here, this is what I like about here.
CLARK: He's finishing his language degree in Baghdad and hopes to follow in his father's footsteps.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: Hopefully, hopefully I get accepted to work at the Foreign Ministry. If I get that, that'd be okay and have a little business on the side.
CLARK: Iraq's modern history has been shaped by one thing oil but recent events are a tale of lost opportunities.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: The oil is a curse, in my opinion it is a curse than it is a blessing. I'm not getting anything out of the oil. I mean we're sitting on mounds of gold and we can't even use it, we can't use it for anything. Why have it then?
CLARK: Iraqis haven't been getting much from their oil for over a decade. Before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, they enjoyed a standard of living the envy of many. Now the argument goes here, American and Britain want control of the country's vast reserves. The hunt for chemical and biological weapons is just a cover.
HAIDER HAMZA: The inspectors have been going all around Iraq for how many years now, for more than ten years? And they didnt found anything so here we've got two possibilities. Either they are not good enough and they can't do their job correctly so they didnt find them yet, or we really dont have them and that's the real reason.
CLARK: And on top of this charge is a deeper feeling among Iraqis that the world is divided into two different groups the powerful west which can have what it likes and the rest who can do what they're told.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: I'm not saying we should, all I'm saying is why can't we? Why is it that Iraqis can't have this but Israel can have that and the States can have that? Well what is it, it's just a power and control problem. They dont want such people to have power, they dont want us to have power at all.
CLARK: Over all of this hovers the figure of Saddam Hussein, projecting an image of pure power, power as strength, a symbol of defiance.
HASMA HUSNI: Saddam Hussein and oil, that's it.
CLARK: So what of Washington's other stated aim, saving Iraqis from a ruthless dictator? Young Iraqis who live in the constant shadow of war say targeting Saddam has more to do with American pride than human rights.
HASMA HUSNI: Just because Saddam Hussein stood against them and said "No, I'm not going to be what you want me to be, I'm going to be what I am".
CLARK: Washington has spent more than a decade trying to knock Saddam over, telling people here they're being ruled by a tyrant. Do they believe it? Asking the question is the old witches test damned if you do, damned if you dont.
OSAMA EL ITHAWI: Absolutely not a dictator. He gave us and is giving us a lot of opportunities to live our simple life. He made our education free without any charges, he built a lot of facilities, a lot of things that he developed so we dont think that he's a dictator at all.
CLARK: Remember this is a man who won not 99 percent of the popular vote last time he and he alone stood for office, but 100 percent, every vote.
HAIDER HAMZA: If someone of the Iraqi citizens does not like the President or does not like the attitude of our government, he will say it, nothing's going to stop him. I mean our President is one person and the people are 25 million so what do you think that one person can do to 25 million? He can't do anything.
CLARK: Are Iraqis really free to speak out against Saddam Hussein?
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: True or false? True and false, I mean it depends, I mean. I can't answer that. I mean this is like. This is really a serious question you know.
CLARK: Iraqis do live by different rules but equally they feel the world knows nothing of their true plight.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: Well the image is that we're just a bunch of savages, we dont know anything except to say Jihad, Jihad, Jihad that's the only thing that we know how to do and all the AK47s and ride my camel from one part of the town to the other. That's the only image that they have.
CLARK: The prevailing mood here is of impending conflict, yet it's oddly normal at the same time, as though this was business as usual. Uday works nights as a computer repairman.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: I'm angry at a lot of governments, I'm not angry at any people that's one thing for sure.
CLARK: But there is a clear sense that games are being played, games that could cost people's lives.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: Of course it's a political game and that's just it, that's my opinion at least. I dont know but basically what it is it's just profit. Blood for oil.
CLARK: Everything in Iraq is political. The pre-match warm up to this football game is pure propaganda.
OSAMA EL ITHAWI: [Translating what the crowd is saying during the pre-match warm up] We'll dig your grave here in Baghdad if you come George Bush so don't come here.
CLARK: It's not that another war is just another game to Iraqis, far from it. They know the price.
HAIDER HAMZA: Absolutely, you have to know that there is no father or mother sleeping at night because they just keep on thinking about the future of their children and it's normal because no one knows what's going to happen tomorrow.
CLARK: For decades the big powers have tried to rig the game here and Iraqis have paid the penalty. So they're deeply suspicious of the latest American plans to install their own man in Baghdad.
OSAMA EL ITHAWI: There is a goal just pass through the goalkeeper and you heard just the people here laughing and we're having a normal life.
CLARK: Normal perhaps not but Iraqis are battle hardened from years of conflict. Most people in this crowd have never known peace and prosperity, they've grown up in the iron grip of Saddam Hussein and for the past decade their country's been squeezed by economic sanctions. Life isn't about to get better anytime soon. While the outside world prepares for another war, as far as most Iraqis are concerned, the last one never ended. Big, bustling Baghdad exudes energy, the energy of a young country. Two thirds of Iraqis are under 25, they've only ever known Saddam Hussein's Iraq and there's no doubting who's in charge.
UNIVERSITY LECTURER: The novel for this semester is going to be Sons and Lovers to D H Lawrence.
CLARK: Tonight we'll hear from Iraq's future elite, not from the politicians and generals who run the place now, but from the young men and women who'll be the country's teachers, doctors, lawyers and diplomats for decades to come, whatever happens to Saddam. How do they view the threat of war?
HAMSA HUSNI: We might die here. Nobody knows. You might live today, you get bombed tomorrow, you're dead so it's pretty hard and we're pretty paralysed here, you dont know what to do, you dont know what to think.
CLARK: Baghdad University is full of a generation who've grown up under siege to believe that it's Iraq against the rest of the world.
OSAMA EL ITHAWI: My worst fear is to get invaded and occupied by another people, by another government this is the worst thing, that to lose your nationality, lose your freedom.
HAIDER HAMZA: If Bush wants to bomb us, he will bomb us nothing's going to prevent him from doing that but at the same time we have to live our normal lives. I mean we can't just stay in our houses hiding behind the doors waiting for the bombs or for the alarm to break out.
CLARK: Far from staying in their houses, Iraqis are out on the street selling or trying to sell what they can. A television goes for a couple of hundred dollars, it's cash to buy food, to get some supplies in case of war. What people can buy from their own pockets is boosted by a monthly ration of staples part of the oil-for-food program which allows the Iraqi government to sell a limited amount of oil and then import food and other basics under strict UN supervision.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: It's like you have a small coupon and the coupon will entitle every single person in the country to get a supply of rice, sugar, wheat, wheat flour and let's say like some beans, milk, things that can be stored.
CLARK: With war looming, the Iraqi government is giving people an advance on their rations so they can build up a stake at home. It's practical help which also strengthens Saddam's control over people's lives.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: I mean the government did a really great job in handling the situation. The ration, let's say, it's a really good factor, it's like it's not allowing a lot of people to starve, especially in Baghdad. But this system is working unless it's supplemented by import if we can't import for the next two months, we'll have people starving here all over.
CLARK: The economic sanctions against Iraq were meant to break Saddam Hussein's hold on power. Twelve years later, they've done nothing of the sort and are viewed by Iraqis as cruel at worst, idiotic at best.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: I mean we couldnt get pencils for a few years because it had carbon, we could use carbon in nuclear warfare. Come on, kids over here didnt even write in pencil.
CLARK: So does the sanctions policy make any sense from your point of view?
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: Not at all.
CLARK: Uday Jaffa Sadik is 23 years old. He was born in Iraq and went to high school in the United States. He's seen what the west has to offer but sees his future firmly in Iraq.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: I love the life here for some reason or another. It's like, I mean kids here could stay outside until two in the morning, I can stay until two and no one's going to say where were you or what happened, were worried. Life is safe here, this is what I like about here.
CLARK: He's finishing his language degree in Baghdad and hopes to follow in his father's footsteps.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: Hopefully, hopefully I get accepted to work at the Foreign Ministry. If I get that, that'd be okay and have a little business on the side.
CLARK: Iraq's modern history has been shaped by one thing oil but recent events are a tale of lost opportunities.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: The oil is a curse, in my opinion it is a curse than it is a blessing. I'm not getting anything out of the oil. I mean we're sitting on mounds of gold and we can't even use it, we can't use it for anything. Why have it then?
CLARK: Iraqis haven't been getting much from their oil for over a decade. Before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, they enjoyed a standard of living the envy of many. Now the argument goes here, American and Britain want control of the country's vast reserves. The hunt for chemical and biological weapons is just a cover.
HAIDER HAMZA: The inspectors have been going all around Iraq for how many years now, for more than ten years? And they didnt found anything so here we've got two possibilities. Either they are not good enough and they can't do their job correctly so they didnt find them yet, or we really dont have them and that's the real reason.
CLARK: And on top of this charge is a deeper feeling among Iraqis that the world is divided into two different groups the powerful west which can have what it likes and the rest who can do what they're told.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: I'm not saying we should, all I'm saying is why can't we? Why is it that Iraqis can't have this but Israel can have that and the States can have that? Well what is it, it's just a power and control problem. They dont want such people to have power, they dont want us to have power at all.
CLARK: Over all of this hovers the figure of Saddam Hussein, projecting an image of pure power, power as strength, a symbol of defiance.
HASMA HUSNI: Saddam Hussein and oil, that's it.
CLARK: So what of Washington's other stated aim, saving Iraqis from a ruthless dictator? Young Iraqis who live in the constant shadow of war say targeting Saddam has more to do with American pride than human rights.
HASMA HUSNI: Just because Saddam Hussein stood against them and said "No, I'm not going to be what you want me to be, I'm going to be what I am".
CLARK: Washington has spent more than a decade trying to knock Saddam over, telling people here they're being ruled by a tyrant. Do they believe it? Asking the question is the old witches test damned if you do, damned if you dont.
OSAMA EL ITHAWI: Absolutely not a dictator. He gave us and is giving us a lot of opportunities to live our simple life. He made our education free without any charges, he built a lot of facilities, a lot of things that he developed so we dont think that he's a dictator at all.
CLARK: Remember this is a man who won not 99 percent of the popular vote last time he and he alone stood for office, but 100 percent, every vote.
HAIDER HAMZA: If someone of the Iraqi citizens does not like the President or does not like the attitude of our government, he will say it, nothing's going to stop him. I mean our President is one person and the people are 25 million so what do you think that one person can do to 25 million? He can't do anything.
CLARK: Are Iraqis really free to speak out against Saddam Hussein?
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: True or false? True and false, I mean it depends, I mean. I can't answer that. I mean this is like. This is really a serious question you know.
CLARK: Iraqis do live by different rules but equally they feel the world knows nothing of their true plight.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: Well the image is that we're just a bunch of savages, we dont know anything except to say Jihad, Jihad, Jihad that's the only thing that we know how to do and all the AK47s and ride my camel from one part of the town to the other. That's the only image that they have.
CLARK: The prevailing mood here is of impending conflict, yet it's oddly normal at the same time, as though this was business as usual. Uday works nights as a computer repairman.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: I'm angry at a lot of governments, I'm not angry at any people that's one thing for sure.
CLARK: But there is a clear sense that games are being played, games that could cost people's lives.
UDAY JAFFA SADIK: Of course it's a political game and that's just it, that's my opinion at least. I dont know but basically what it is it's just profit. Blood for oil.
CLARK: Everything in Iraq is political. The pre-match warm up to this football game is pure propaganda.
OSAMA EL ITHAWI: [Translating what the crowd is saying during the pre-match warm up] We'll dig your grave here in Baghdad if you come George Bush so don't come here.
CLARK: It's not that another war is just another game to Iraqis, far from it. They know the price.
HAIDER HAMZA: Absolutely, you have to know that there is no father or mother sleeping at night because they just keep on thinking about the future of their children and it's normal because no one knows what's going to happen tomorrow.
CLARK: For decades the big powers have tried to rig the game here and Iraqis have paid the penalty. So they're deeply suspicious of the latest American plans to install their own man in Baghdad.