Baghdad
On a personal fact-finding mission to Iraq, Sean Penn said he’d been moved by the plight of the Iraqi people and believed that war was avoidable. His three-day trip included stops at a children’s hospital and a water-treatment plant as well as a meeting with Iraqi officials. “As a father, an actor, a filmmaker, and a patriot,” Penn said, he made the trip “to see the human face of the Iraqi people.’’ He called on both the U.S. and Iraq to make all efforts to avoid a war. Saddam Hussein’s regime promptly reported that Penn had “confirmed that Iraq is completely clear of weapons of mass destruction” and that he had said he would tell Americans to “force the U.S. administration to stop such aggressive campaign.”
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