The Iraq War destroyed that country and killed more than six hundred thousand people. The United States justified the invasion claiming Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons, that threatened the world. Brazilian diplomat José Bustani was the first general director ot the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) from 1997 to 2002. Under his impartial leadership, countries traditionally distrusted by multilateral organizations were brought into the fold. On the verge of including Iraq in the OPCW, 9/11 happened. Bustani suffered relentless pressure from the United States to renounce his position. He stood in the path of the worlds most powerful nation and tried to prove that Iraq had no chemical weapons: it was all a farce. His perceived arrogance would cost him dearly. Today, retired in Rio de Janeiro, far from the front, Bustani contents himself with his first passion: music.