Massive anti-US/UK protest in Iraq

To Iraqis, April 9 means good riddance Saddam AND US/UK out


Photo and captions from China Daily: ``Thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr hold a demonstration in Baghdad's Firdos Square April 9, 2005 where a statue of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was pulled down by Iraqis and American soldiers two years ago.[Reuters]''


Photo and captions from China Daily: ``Iraqi Shi'ites loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr hold cut-outs of British Prime Minister Tony Blair (C), former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein (L), and U.S. President George W. Bush during a protest rally in Baghdad April 9, 2005. The rally was called on the second anniversary of the fall of Baghdad with protestors demanding an end to the U.S. military presence in Iraq and a speedy trial for former president Saddam Hussein. [Reuters]''

The real meaning of April 9 for the clear majorities of Iraqis was expressed today in this massive display of sympathy for the anti-US-occupation forces of Moqtada al-Sadr.

Let's review history. Many Americans two years ago today on April 9, 2003 were overwhelmed with jingoistic pride and deep delusions of superiority when news photos of Saddam's statue being pulled down hit the airwaves and newspapers. This story from the New York Daily News was typical:

Saddam's reign of terror ends: Joyful Iraqis flood streets of Baghdad

By HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Saddam Hussein's quarter-century rule came to a crashing end yesterday when American tanks and troops thundered into downtown Baghdad and his army of thugs vanished without putting up a fight.

The Iraqi dictator's defeat -- and his humiliation -- after only three weeks of combat was punctuated with the tearing down of a 20-foot statue of the tyrant in Baghdad's Firdos Square.

Millions around the world watched as the statue buckled at the knees, sagged for a moment and collapsed from its pedestal.

The destruction was met by wild cheers and tears of joy, a scene that occurred throughout Baghdad yesterday as the city's people spilled out of their homes in celebration as they realized Saddam's era was over.

"The heart of the city is secure," said Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division. "The end of the combat phase is days away."

The photo captions accompanying this same story extend the striking propaganda effect:

·Gravity takes over as statue of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is toppled in Firdos Square, Baghdad.

·Severed head of Saddam statue bears brunt of Iraqis' rage in Baghdad yesterday. Flogging with sole of shoe is particularly potent Arab insult.

·Jubilant Iraqi greets U.S. soldier in downtown Baghdad.

That same day, a reactionary family member, knowing well my opposition to the war -- as if to rub it in -- sent me a link to a similar news story along with this message, ``Sounds like the good Iraqis are happy to be free. Are you happy to be free???''

But all was not as it seemed. Almost immediately in April 2003, the truth that the statue toppling was very likely a staged-managed psychological operation created by the US military became available from pictures taken by independent reporters who were on the scene.


American tanks surround small group of shipped-in actors who staged the toppling of Saddam's statue

Confimation of this suspicion came in a July 3, 2004 story by David Zucchino in the Los Angeles Times.

As the Iraqi regime was collapsing on April 9, 2003, Marines converged on Firdos Square in central Baghdad, site of an enormous statue of Saddam Hussein. It was a Marine colonel — not joyous Iraqi civilians, as was widely assumed from the TV images — who decided to topple the statue, the Army report said. And it was a quick-thinking Army psychological operations team that made it appear to be a spontaneous Iraqi undertaking.

While it is clear that almost no one was the least bit sorry to see the back of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, the Iraqi people now two years later hold equal or even greater contempt for their new bosses. Home invasions by American soldiers, killings at checkpoints, torture in now-American-run dungeons, failure to rebuild essential public services, and even wholesale destruction of cities has built up in Iraq the strong anti-occupation feelings that today's demonstration sympathetic to al-Sadr represented. Trouble is ahead if the government newly formed after the January 30 election follows a puppet rather than a people's course.