- It was, by any measure, an astonishing coincidence. As
the biggest statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad was pulled down "spontaneously"
in front of the world's media, the Stars and Stripes which flew on the
Pentagon on 11 September was at hand to be draped over its face.
-
- The US army denied that the toppling of the 20ft edifice
by a tank tower was stage-managed. It was a coincidence, they said, that
Lt Tim McLaughlin, the keeper of that flag, happened to be present.
-
- And, it has to be noted, the commander of the US marines
who completed the capture of Baghdad did express concern at the time that
the use of the Stars and Stripes smacked of triumphalism. It was later
changed to an Iraqi flag. But not before acres of TV footage had been shot.
-
- Yesterday, the US army banned any display of the flag
on vehicles, buildings, statues and command posts, halting its display
almost everywhere but the US embassy in Baghdad.
-
- There was some suspicion that the crowd that jumped up
and down on the metal carcass had been bused in from the Shia suburb of
Saddam City. That was not the case, they were mostly local. But they were
the same people who chanted "My blood, my spirit, I shall die for
you O Saddam" ñ until the last day of the regime.
-
- Flushed with victory, the marines one spoke to had no
doubts about the war's justice. But when asked whether they had seen any
proof of a link between al-Qa'ida and the defeated Iraqi regime, there
was general puzzlement.
-
- When one of the few remaining "human shields"
in Baghdad, Uzma Bashir, from Rickmansworth, baited the troops with shouts
of "Yankee murderers", Cpl Ibrahim Rahim exploded: "I scooped
up the brains of two young marines ... They died fighting to liberate Iraq.
And you stand here insulting them with this shit." He added: "I
am a Muslim ... and I know this region. That woman is seriously abusing
her right of speech."
-
- Captain Brian Lewis, a tank commander, said: "All
we are trying to do is create the conditions for representative government."
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=396043
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