martin stood beside a triumphal arch in central baghdad , a memorial to the iran-iraq war , depicting two huge arms each holding a crossed sabre , the hands of which were modelled on saddams own , the blades of the swords having been recast from the melted down guns of fallen iraqi soldiers , while at the foot of the monument the bullet-riddled helmets of the iranian foe tell their own story , and , for the first time in his life , considered his own legacy to posterity .