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The Amanpour Hour

Interview with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT); Interview with Iranian Human Rights Activist, "It Was Just An Accident" Co-Writer, and Iranian Democracy Activist Mehdi Mahmoudian; Interview with Former Saudi Intelligence Chief and Former Saudi Arabia Ambassador to the U.S. Prince Turki al-Faisal; Interview with Former MI6 Chief and Former U.K. Ambassador to the U.N. John Sawers; Fears Iran War Could Echo Iraq; UNESCO Desperate to Save Cultural Heritage Amid Iran War. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired March 07, 2026 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:42]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello everyone, and welcome to THE AMANPOUR HOUR.

Here's where we're headed this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: A week at war that's already spilled way beyond Iran's borders. We get the global perspective on what's being called the U.S. and Israel conflict of choice.

First U.S. Democratic senator and Foreign Relations Committee member, Chris Murphy's furious response to a lack of any exit strategy.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): This is about as incoherent, incompetent and confusing a rollout of military action overseas as I've ever seen.

AMANPOUR: Then, from inside Iran, I talk to democracy activist Mehdi Mahmoudian, who co-wrote the Oscar-nominated drama, "It Was Just An Accident" and was, until recently, a political prisoner of the regime.

And with the Gulf under fire, Saudi Arabia's former intelligence director warns of the apocalyptic approach (ph) from all involved.

TURKI AL FAISAL, FORMER SAUDI INTELLIGENCE CHIEF AND FORMER SAUDI ARABIA AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: We're in for a long haul.

AMANPOUR: Plus, are America's allies being swept up in something they tried to avoid. Britain's former spymaster John Sawers joins me.

Also in the program, warnings from history, my archive from Iraq. How the last U.S. effort at regime change went awry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London.

A week of war with Iran. But does anyone have any clear idea what the plan is? What will constitute victory and how it will all end? The U.S. administration's goals and motivations have been shifting dramatically ever since the bombing began last Saturday morning, with a massive attack that killed Iran's top religious leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and much of his senior staff in a first-ever joint U.S. Israel war.

Since then, both of them have been surprised by the scope of Iran's retaliation all over the Persian Gulf, in Israel and even threatening NATO and European targets.

President Trump ended the week insisting that somehow he must decide who Iran's next leader will be while experts warn against thinking Iran is Venezuela.

And also, he seemed to wash his hands of helping the Iranian people overthrow their oppressors.

All this week, I've been speaking to leaders around the world about the outcome and why a clear war aim matters to avoid mission creep.

First, to Washington. Amid a war without approval from Congress or the American people, according to the polls, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy was briefed, along with all his colleagues, by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. And he joined me here with a furious response.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Senator Murphy, welcome back to the program.

What is your understanding of the progress of this war on Iran?

MURPHY: Well, first of all I have no idea why we entered this war because Donald Trump has one story and Marco Rubio has another story.

Rubio says we got dragged into the war by Israel. He's effectively said that this was a defensive action because we worried there was going to be an attack on the United States.

Donald Trump says, no. In fact, we dragged Israel into this war.

They have lots of different goals. They seem to be targeting the nuclear program, the missile program. Trump seems to be talking pretty regularly about regime change, cheerleading the Iranian people to come out into the streets.

It's really unclear to me, even after having sat in the briefing yesterday, why we entered the war and what the goals are.

It looks as if it's pretty open-ended, that we may be at war with Iran, bombing Iran for months, if not the better part of this year.

This is about as incoherent, incompetent and confusing a rollout of military action overseas as I've ever seen. AMANPOUR: Can I just stop you there and pick up on what you just said. Months or the better part of the rest of this year? That's 11 months to be precise.

Israel, as we know, has done that in Gaza for the -- for two years after October 7th.

[11:04:49]

AMANPOUR: You think that the United States is capable of bombing a country for a whole another year?

MURPHY: Donald Trump has talked about regime change, and certainly Israel is talking about regime change. And of course, this has to be a regime change operation because they specifically targeted the ayatollah and many people surrounding him.

It doesn't actually seem like we care too much who runs the country. Our intelligence services acknowledge that it'll be hardliners that will still be committed to provocation in the region and rebuilding a missile program and rebuilding a nuclear program.

And it doesn't appear that we are going to support the Iranian people in their efforts to overtake the regime and start a transition to democracy.

So, if that's all true, the only way that you can stop Iran from restarting its missile program, restarting its nuclear program, restarting its drone program, is to be constantly bombing Iran. Every time they try to start a new drone factory, you bomb that factory.

That seems to be the administration's plan right now. That's a recipe for almost endless war in the region. That's -- I think, would be shocking to the American people, but I don't really know any other way to read their strategy or their explanation of their strategy.

AMANPOUR: Senator, do you think, if you've looked at the polls right, you know what the American people are thinking. What are they thinking?

You know, often when a country goes to war, people rally around the flag, et cetera. Are they doing that?

MURPHY: Well, I mean, people have no idea why we're at war with Iran. The president did, you know, absolutely no work at explaining to the American people why this was essential. You know, even back in the Iraq war days, though that was never -- you know, that ended up being a very unpopular war, the president explained it to the American people.

Donald Trump hasn't told folks why we're doing this. It's going to be increasingly unpopular. It's already supported by only maybe 30 percent of the American public.

But as prices continue to go up, oil prices, the price of groceries go up, as more Americans get killed, and we were told in no uncertain terms yesterday in the briefing that more Americans are going to die. This is going to become maybe the most unpopular military engagement in the history of the country.

And the president whose approval ratings are already around 30 percent are going to plummet into the 20s and the teens. This shouldn't be about politics, but nobody in America wants this war.

AMANPOUR: What did you hear from Secretary Rubio about the commitment to helping the Iranian people if indeed they do take America up on what it's urging them to do, and that is protest and try to overthrow their regime?

MURPHY: So, it appears to me that we are not willing, that the Trump administration, is not willing based upon the comments that they have made to us to support the Iranian people in their efforts to depose this regime and start a transition to a democracy.

And that is unforgivable given the fact that, as you mentioned, Donald Trump has told the Iranian people to get out into the streets.

But if they go out into the streets, they're going to be slaughtered. The Iranian military is still very powerful. We maybe have taken out their missile capability, but we haven't taken out their ability to wage war domestically on the streets of Iran.

And if we are going to encourage the Iranian people to come out in the streets and then pull the rug out from under them, not give them the support that they need. And by the way, an air campaign doesn't help them in, you know, peaceful protests. That would have to be American ground forces.

It seems that we are readying to leave the Iranian people out to dry. That we're going to tell them get out on the streets, and then we're going to give them no support. Reminiscent of Hungary during the Cold War, Iraq in the 1990s.

There could be a slaughter afoot because the Iranian people think that the United States has their back. But Donald Trump, I don't think, has any intention to go that far.

AMANPOUR: That would be a terrible betrayal, Senator. The president has stood up in public over and again, urging them and promising them help is on the way.

I know that Hegseth yesterday said this is not about regime change. So, what's changed, do you think?

MURPHY: Well, I don't think anything has changed. They're just incompetent and incoherent. I mean, I think every single day Donald Trump gives a different rationale for the war. This is just what happens when you have, you know, a senile old man surrounded by a bunch of incompetent sycophants, making decisions as serious as war in the Middle East.

One day they say, the Iranian people get out there, take over the government. The next day they say, actually, we don't care who's in charge of Iran. If you want to go out there and try to take out this regime, Iranian people, you're on your own.

[11:09:48]

MURPHY: I think the rhetoric will flip another six times between now and next Monday. That's just what you get when you have, you know, I mean, people who just aren't up for the job when you have a talk show host running the Department of Defense.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Coming up, the view from inside Iran as the bombs fall. I talked to democracy activist, dissident, and acclaimed screenwriter Mehdi Mahmoudian.

[11:10:14]

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AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

Most of the information and briefings come from the U.S. and Israeli administrations. Communications blackouts have hampered the view from Iran, not to mention leaders pretty much trying to hide out from repeated assassination attempts.

The country sustaining this unprecedented bombardment with civilian casualties is mounting fast, including more than a hundred at a girls' school.

Given the nature of the Iranian regimes fight for survival now and its history of violent crackdowns on dissent and protest, it was especially courageous of my next guest to join me from there to explain exactly what he and the majority of Iranians want.

He is one of Iran's best known democracy dissidents, jailed many times over the past decades, who also co-wrote the Oscar-nominated film, "It Was Just An Accident". In fact, just before the bombs began raining, death and destruction all over, in Pete Hegseth words, Mahmoudian had been released from his latest spell inside Evin Prison, this time for writing an open letter blasting the now dead supreme leader for launching the brutal and bloody crackdown on protesters in January.

I spoke to Mahmoudian just before an intense overnight bombardment on Tehran, which he later told us was quote, "terrifying".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Mehdi Mahmoudian, welcome to our program from Tehran. I can't tell you how pleased we are to have you. Can you just tell me how it is for you? What it is like, the bombing? How do you feel about it?

MEHDI MAHMOUDIAN, IRANIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST, CO-WRITER, "IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT" AND IRANIAN DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST (through translator): What happened in the streets of Tehran and after the war in Tehran brought out two different feelings in us. One was a sense of joy that those who had played a role in suppressing

the people, those who had killed thousands of people in the streets, or had ordered massacres were killed and were no longer there to continue the repression.

On the other hand, we were sad that our country had been invaded and the countries had attacked our country based on their own interests. And these feelings can be easily seen on the faces of the people. Both joy at the death of the dictator and sadness that the war had begun and that it would probably bring decades of suffering to Iran.

AMANPOUR: Do you think, Mehdi Mahmoudian, that there is a possibility to change your regime? And how do you think it should happen? Who should be leading the change?

MAHMOUDIAN (through translator): I was in prison for at least nine years. And I hoped that I and all my friends and comrades in Iran who are fighting to confront tyranny and replace it with a democratic system, we hoped that we could establish the system with the help of civil society and the Iranian people.

Today, I also hope that America and its allies will allow the fate of Iran to be determined by the Iranian people themselves and allow us to determine our own fate by stopping the war of attrition.

AMANPOUR: Can you tell me what the atmosphere is in Tehran right now?

MAHMOUDIAN (through translator): Almost all the people are in their homes. Many of the incidents that are happening and the buildings that are exploding, I am very happy that the institutions of oppression are being destroyed. Just as they have humiliated the people in these years, they themselves are being humiliated and killed.

And the people do not think much about their future. Of course, they are happy right now, because they can see the humiliation of the Islamic Republic, the humiliation of those who have humiliated them.

With all those slogans and bragging without support in the streets, they brought the country to this point. These days, 50 or 100 people walk in the streets chanting slogans in the style of 1,400 years ago. And they are causing more fear among the people, so that the people do not come out.

AMANPOUR: You are also co-writer, along with the director Jafar Panahi, of a film called "It Was Just an Accident," which has been nominated for an Oscar.

Now, this is a story of former prisoners who kidnapped a man who they found on the outside, who they believe they recognized as one of their prison torturers. What do you want to say about those who were tortured and those who are the abusers and the torturers?

MAHMOUDIAN (through translator): We tried to say in this film that the cycle of violence must stop somewhere. Somewhere, we must stop this cycle of violence, as people who have paid the price and suffered harm. If we, like those interrogators, inflict violence like that structure

of the Islamic Republic, it won't make much difference to them. The injured person will be replaced with the victim, and the victim will be replaced with the torturer.

[11:19:51]

MAHMOUDIAN (through translator): What we had to convey with this message was, first, to say that we want to stop this cycle of violence, and second, that we basically recognize the torturer, the one who inflicts harm by force, and he should be tried as the perpetrator.

But what needs to be stopped is the structure in which someone gives himself the right to torture.

AMANPOUR: Mehdi Mahmoudian, thank you so much for talking to us so frankly from a nation under war and calling for change, as you are doing. Thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And you can see my full conversation with Mehdi Mahmoudian at amanpour.com.

Coming up, "red lines crossed", Qatar's words. Anger in the Persian Gulf states being dragged into this war by Iran. The view from key U.S. ally and regional powers Saudi Arabia is next.

[11:20:42]

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AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

Persian Gulf states have been shocked at the extent of Iran's retaliation, not just on U.S. military bases there, but on their own economies, civilians, and most importantly, a decades-long projection of stability in this roiling region.

All that shattered this week. U.S. embassies and the CIA station in Saudi Arabia were targeted.

I reached Prince Turki Al-Faisal in the capital Riyadh. He was the kingdom's intelligence chief and ambassador to Washington and London. And I asked if Saudi sees any clear rationale for this war or the way out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL-FAISAL: The dangers of expanding and widening the conflict exist at the moment and there has to be a stop to it.

Unfortunately, I don't think that the bombing campaign that the Americans and the Israelis have begun is going to put a stop to that. Whatever information I have is that the Iranians are pretty well stocked with missiles and drones and have been preparing for this kind of eventuality, not only by the time of the last conflict in June but even from before that. So, we're in for a long haul, if you like, not just on the American side but also on the Iranian side.

One thing I must make clear, Ms. Amanpour, is that here in the area we're facing two agendas. One -- both of them apocalyptic.

One from Israel, which is the greater Israel agenda. This has been talked about by Netanyahu and by other Israeli officials. Israel wants to expand from the Nile River to the Euphrates.

And the other one, of course, is the Iranian agenda, which is the return of the absent imam who disappeared something like seven or eight centuries ago, and he will come back and make the world a peaceful place and prepare for the coming of Christ.

The third agenda that is affecting us and which has impact in the United States and in other places is the Christian Zionist agenda, which wants to see a return of the Messiah. And the existence of Israel in their theology and their terminology is necessary for that to happen.

So, we are, if you like, in the middle of these three agendas that are operating to expand their vision onto the rest of us. And the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, of course, works with its Gulf allies to try to put a stop to all this bloodshed and carnage that is taking place.

AMANPOUR: I just want to pick up on what you said about the apocalyptic visions because you've mentioned, you know, from the Israeli perspective, from the Iranian perspective and from the American perspective.

And in fact, this week, there have been reports and complaints by many American officers and soldiers through their chain of command about being told that U.S. troops war on Iran is part of Armageddon.

So, that's what they have been told in some of their -- in some of their units and in some of their bases by their commanding officers.

I want to ask you about what appears to be some surprise in the region, maybe in Saudi Arabia, in Qatar, some anger about the response by Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Amazingly, they're hitting countries that were, you know, let's call them neutral, right? They lived together for a long time. I think they were surprised. I was surprised.

And now, those countries are all fighting against them and fighting strongly against them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Are you surprised at the extent of Iran's retaliation? AL-FAISAL: Well, I am surprised at the president's surprise. Respectfully, I would recall that the Crown Prince and other Gulf leaders have been urging America not to undertake military action against Iran, because all of us believe that that action will not remain confined to Iran, that Iran will retaliate against American presence in the area, which is present in all of the Gulf states and as far away as Turkey, apparently.

[11:29:52]

AL-FAISAL: So, if he was surprised, I don't think Saudi or other Gulf leaders were surprised. They've been warning the Americans not to undertake military action and suffer the consequences.

AMANPOUR: I want to ask you a final and quick question. People are saying that Israel stands to be the biggest winner out of all of this. Do you think that's the case? And do you think that it makes normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia any closer?

AL-FAISAL: Well, forget normalization, let alone what Israel is doing in Gaza and the West Bank. You know, this is Netanyahu's war. You talked about the dog and the tail, who's wagging who.

It is definitely Mr. Netanyahu who, as you mentioned, seven trips to America, and obviously he somehow convinced the president to support his views.

And so, Netanyahu has been trying to do this in order to get away from the murky and terrible conduct that he led Israel into, not just in Gaza, but in the West Bank and internally. He wants to change the constitution of Israel to allow him to undertake whatever he wants to do without check.

So, that is why he has been pushing for this war, is to drive people's attention away from what is happening on the ground in Palestine.

AMANPOUR: Prince Turki al-Faisal, thank you very much.

AL-FAISAL: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And many reject the notion coming from Israel and the United States, that there was an imminent threat from Iran that demanded this war right now. They're calling it a war of choice.

Coming up --

JOHN SAWERS, FORMER M16 CHIEF AND FORMER U.K. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: The very best you can expect is a sort of Venezuela-type outcome. But there are plenty of other, more dangerous outcomes coming from this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Britain's former spymaster, what his decades helming foreign policy and intelligence tell him about where this conflict could lead and on tensions in the special relationship now.

[11:31:58]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back.

This unprecedented joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, it's fair to say, has stirred mostly opposition fear and concern around the world, including among allies, as the fallout affects them all.

By the end of the week, the Trump administration seemed to convene around a more narrow objective to degrade Iran's missile ability and end the nuclear program, which Trump had already claimed to have obliterated in the bombings last summer.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez opposes the strikes and got a smackdown from Trump, as did the British prime minister, who said he didn't believe in quote, "regime change from the skies" and at first denied U.S. bombers use of U.K. bases for offensive purposes before changing his position, but only for defensive action.

When former MI6 spy chief Sir John Sawers came into the studio here, he was very concerned that all this might end in the chaos of a collapsed state and massive blowback for the region and the west.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Sir John Sawers, welcome back to the program at this really critical time.

SAWERS: Thank you, Christiane.

AMANPOUR: I want to ask you first from the British perspective, Trump has now openly criticized in front of another European leader, Chancellor Merz, Britain. He's very angry that Prime Minister Starmer didn't allow U.K. bases to be used in those first strikes by the Americans. Can I just play what Trump said?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: There would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours. So, we are very surprised. This is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Can this Prime Minister recover from that kind of public attack?

SAWERS: Well, frankly, President Trump's not dealing with Winston Churchill, and Keir Starmer's not dealing with Franklin Roosevelt. You know, you have two very different characters.

I think they'll get over it. I've heard, usually in private, sharp differences of views in the past between presidents and prime ministers. I don't think this is a major issue.

And frankly, as the Americans have demonstrated, they didn't actually need access to U.S. -- U.K. bases. It was just a convenience for them.

AMANPOUR: Can I ask you about what's been described as the rolling rationales for this war and the rolling inconsistencies from all members of the administration, the senior members from the president on down, to what might be the exit strategy or any strategy?

What do you think? Can you discern a rationale for the war as stated?

SAWERS: Well, the first thing to say, Christiane, is this is an unnecessary war. It was not required because it was not as if it was to preempt an imminent threat against the United States or indeed against Israel.

The rationale, to the extent that there is one, is that it secures Israel for decades to come. That's what the Israelis think. And they would like to see the end of this Islamic Republic in Iran. And they think they will be much safer as a result. And they might be right. But this will come at a cost.

[11:39:44]

SAWERS: The very best outcome you can expect from the current conflict is that a successor leadership comes in and behaves differently from its predecessors.

Now, that is what some in America are calling the Venezuela option. Not that I think it would be easy to find a Delcy Rodriguez in Iran. Iran is a deeply ideological country or regime.

I think just as dangerous is the possibility that the regime might corrode or collapse and lose control of parts of the country. And then you could have a situation like the one we faced in Syria for the last year or so, where the country fragments into several different parts.

AMANPOUR: Ok. So, CNN has been reporting that the CIA may be working to arm the Kurdish groups with the aim of fomenting such an uprising.

From a foreign policy perspective, from a geostrategic perspective, is it in anybody's interest?

SAWERS: Well, it's a dangerous road to go down. You say, whose interest might it be in? Well, I think the Kurds themselves in Iran would probably feel more free, if they were not ordered about and told what language they can speak, what flags they can fly by Tehran.

There's a parallel here with the Kurds in Iraq after the 1991 war, when the Iraqis did have an area which was a sort of safe haven, which they helped keep safe.

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: Well, that's only after the president then, George H.W. Bush, I was there, told them to rise up. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And there's another way for the bloodshed to stop. And that is for the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: And the Shiites, then they got slaughtered because the Americans didn't come and help them.

SAWERS: Exactly.

AMANPOUR: Then they had to spend 20 years giving them a no-fly zone, which was great. But do you think Trump is prepared to give the Kurds of Iran a 20-year no-fly zone?

SAWERS: No, I don't think he is. And I think it's been -- it was as unwise of Trump to call on the Iranian people to rise up as it was unwise of George H.W. Bush to call on the Iraqi people to rise up in 1991.

So, just getting back to your point about fragmentation, if the country dissolves into component parts, it'll be basically a failed state --

AMANPOUR: Yes.

SAWERS: -- an ungoverned state. And we've known from the last sort of 40 years what happens in failed states. It becomes a center for terrorism, for smuggling, for gun running, for drugs, for criminality of all sorts. And it does pose a threat to other countries.

I think it's in America's interest, and it's certainly in the interest of Europe, that this deeply unpleasant regime in Tehran should nonetheless be replaced by a regime which still has authority over the country, that you can hold it to account.

Yes, we want to change Iran's behavior, but if you just dismantle the regime completely, you could end up with the sort of chaos that we've had to deal with in Afghanistan next door to Iran, or indeed in Lebanon and Libya, and more recently in Syria.

Now, I think there's a difference here between American interests and Israeli interests. Americans do need to be able to deal with a country the size of Iran one way or another.

Now, there are 90 million people in Iran. How many of those are going to flee to Turkey and try and make their way to Europe? How many -- how many million Iranian refugees is the United States prepared to accept as a consequence of this war? Those are unanswered questions because people are not looking down that road.

Now, it's not clear that this is going to happen, but there's a risk of this happening, and the very best you can expect is a sort of Venezuela-type outcome. But there are plenty of other more dangerous outcomes coming from this.

AMANPOUR: Are you worried about that? Are you worried about ever- expanding, you know, circles of this conflict?

SAWERS: I think this conflict has already expanded beyond what most people expected. I think the scale of the Iranian response has been greater than many anticipated. Perhaps wrongly, they should have anticipated.

AMANPOUR: Sir John Sawers, thank you very much indeed.

SAWERS: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Now, there is though, a chance and certainly a fervent hope, that somehow, sometime the Iranian people will rise and change their regime as both Trump and Israel's prime minister have been urging before now at least Trump backing off. There's likely to be a huge amount more pain on the way there.

Coming up, fears grow amongst Americans about the scale of this war. When we come back, lessons from Iraq and my reporting from Baghdad, 2003. That's next.

[11:44:12]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

The war's civilian toll is mounting highest and fastest in Iran. In the opening salvo, a girls' elementary school in the south was struck and more than 150 of them were killed, according to the Iranian government. This week, parents buried them in this lineup of graves. Both Israel and the U.S. say they are investigating. Several American service members have been killed and some Israeli citizens as well.

With the nightmare of Iraq and Afghanistan still lingering, few Americans have any appetite to be drawn into yet another protracted and bitter war in the Middle East. In fact, polls show a clear majority are against Trump's war on Iran.

Over a million U.S. personnel ended up serving in Iraq from the 2003 invasion. 4,500 of them lost their lives and more than 32,000 were wounded.

[11:49:52]

AMANPOUR: Up to a million Iraqis are thought to have died in the insurgencies and U.S. bombings that lasted for years.

I covered the invasion of March 2003 and in the immediate aftermath, just after Saddam Hussein had been toppled, Baghdad was littered still, of course, with the evidence of war and its people bearing the true toll. Here's my report from then.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Baghdad wallows in the wreckage of war. Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles blown up on the city streets, cars and trucks still waving the white flag lest they be mistaken for the enemy.

And here, right in the middle of a residential neighborhood, a missile, we're told, a SAM 2.

Marines are here to make sure it's safely towed away. And the people complain loudly about the fallen regime placing such targets in their midst. They said they were afraid of U.S. bombs dropped in this neighborhood, perhaps aiming for the missile.

This is a deep crater caused by a bomb, and around what seems to be the remnants of some kind of vehicle. But just 20 yards away, there are private homes, and the doctors here tell us that they've received many more civilian casualties during this war than they did during the first Gulf War of 1991.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a shell to the abdomen. We open the abdomen and have injury to the bowel.

AMANPOUR: At this one hospital alone, doctors tell us they have received 500 civilians, with everything from slight to critical injuries. And they conducted 170 major operations in just 21 days of war.

DR. ABDUL MOHAMMED HAKEEM, ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON: In the first war, we didn't see such a huge number. This is number one.

And secondly, the type of injuries here is more serious, as I noticed than before.

AMANPOUR: And now with the looting, Dr. Hakeem says he simply can't get the staff to come to work. Today, no anesthetist, no radiologist.

DR. HAKEEM: But thank God we cope. Yes. What to do?

AMANPOUR: That's because they brought their own guns to keep the bandits at bay. U.S. marines have set up a position near another hospital. Children bring them flowers, and the marines say they're trying to calm the fears of the past few chaotic days.

CPL. QUENTIN MILROE, U.S. MARINE CORPS: Let them know we're not here to harm them. Were here for peace, now. That's our mission is to give them security.

AMANPOUR: Inside the hospital filled with more war wounded, including this five-year-old boy with a shrapnel wound to the head, the doctor says he's got mixed feelings. Relief that Saddam Hussein is gone, but a deep desire for more security.

DR. ABDUL KARIM YAKHDAN, NEUROSURGEON: When Mr. Bush and Blair and other decide to bomb and to change the regime should be planned immediately.

AMANPOUR: Down by the main marine base, a group of Iraqis decided to make that demand more clear. Waving a banner, calling for a new order and yelling for peace. At one point, it got ugly.

CROWD: Go home, Yankees. Go home, Yankees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say cheers for your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) freedom. Go back up right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok?

AMANPOUR: In the end, though calm prevailed with both the Iraqis and the marines deciding that discretion is the better part of valor.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN -- Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: It is important to consider how quickly an invasion a competent military operation could descend into what transpired in Iraq which was a failed state.

Now, the Trump administration swears that this time it is not Iraq, not a forever war. But in the first week, it's become painfully clear that what happens next in Iran is literally anyone's guess at this point. But we can be certain that innocent civilians will bear the heaviest price.

When we come back, the historical and cultural sites caught in the crossfire. How UNESCO is doing what it can to protect them. That's after a break.

[11:54:06]

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AMANPOUR: And finally, history. Iran's goes back some 2,500 years, America's 250 years. And now UNESCO is trying to give all sides of this war the coordinates of its world heritage sites, hoping that will protect them.

It comes after precious historic and cultural buildings have come under fire this week. The Golestan Palace in downtown Tehran was damaged by the aftermath of a U.S.-Israeli strike. That is, according to Iranian state media.

The magnificent mirrored halls are a symbol of Iranian culture, which date back more than 200 years in this case.

It was also where the last shah was crowned in 1967. His seven-year- old son and heir, Reza Pahlavi, sitting by his side.

Parts of Tehran's Azadi Stadium, built to host the 1974 Asian games in Tehran, was also damaged in the strikes.

[11:59:44]

AMANPOUR: Meanwhile, Israel says an Iranian strike on the town of Beit Shemesh destroyed a synagogue and killed nine people. Lives, of course, matter most today but destroying cultural heritage robs future generations of the history that helped shape them.

That's all we have time for. Don't forget, you can always find all of our shows online as podcasts at CNN.com/audio and on all other major platforms.

I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. Thank you for watching. And I'll see you again watching and I'll see you again next week.