Many of the worst mistakes of the war, Rice insists, were made by the Pentagon: too few troops to enforce order; disbanding the Iraqi Army; surreal official briefings, at increasing odds with the reality that foreign correspondents on the ground were seeing.
"The ground is seen as a sinister place for aliens and misfits," Ms. Littenberg said.
On a video provided by Mr. Diarrassouba, gunshots can be heard, and the bloodied bodies of at least four women lying face down on the ground are seen.
"Berlin's swampy ground was seen as a potential hindrance for such a massive structure, so the engineers of the German Society for Soil Mechanics were commissioned to check the extent to which it would have to be reinforced," says Micha Richter, a Berlin architect and leading member of Berlin Underworlds, an association that holds tours of historic sites across – and mainly underneath – the city.
Common ground is seen as vital to team performance.
A commitment to avoid "boots on the ground" is seen as the acid test of President Obama's commitment to avoid drawing the US into another extended war in Iraq.
Currently, the coalition is engaged only in airstrikes against the Islamic State, and Iran's troops on the ground are seen by some as a tentacled power grab.
Scenes of chaos from within the hotel's grounds are seen as the footage starts.
Afterwards shoes, beer bottles and bags littered the ground, people were seen limping and searching desperately for friends and relatives, the witness said.
Countries like New Zealand and Australia struggled to sell out their Test grounds; empty seats were seen in Ireland at the new Lansdowne Road ground, too, thanks to the rapacious demands made over ticket prices by the out-of-touch IRFU.
