Watching MSNBC (thank-you, Chand Sooran), as the statue is hauled down in Baghdad and celebrations break out on the streets all across northern Iraq. "This is the Berlin Wall all over again," says Chand. "Incredible." As for me, I think instead of Shelly:
"I met a traveller from an antique landThe cautions are not wrong, as we saw in Panama. There is fighting ahead. All True. So is the joy. So is the celebration. So is the end of the regime.
Who said: 'Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear --
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.' "-- Percy Bysshe Shelly
Sic semper tyrannis. Thus, always, to tyrants. In our name.
UPDATE: Hat Tip to War Photos for the picture. Donald Sensing goes one better with some great video of the statue's fall, plus stills of "the funeral shroud of tyranny," the "human shields go home" sign, etc. Start here.
I hope that we will be able to help the injured people of Iraq with the same zeal that we used to destroy so much of their country. I am not anti war, but I am pained at the cost the poor had to pay for this.
A wise person once said "be careful who you step on, on your way up, you'll see them again on your way down."
Nice to see that the phrase "sic semper tyrannis" didn't lose its glamour when Abraham Lincoln's assassin used it as his rallying cry.
Okay, Dave 1, let's just enjoy the moment for now. I think the Pres has already expressed his committment to rebuilding the country and the military did a phenomenal job in leaving infrastructure intact.
So, like the "poor people" over there, let's spend a few moments in celebration.
Sic semper tyrannis! (It does have an awfully nice ring to it, doesn't it?)
Another Dave,
No more than the Beatles lost their glamour when Charles Manson used "Helter Skelter" as his rallying cry.
I can't help but have my doubts about the future of the Iraqi people, after having seen how inept those Shi'ia Iraqis were at toppling this statue (Haystacks Calhoun put in some solid blows with that hammer, but besides that ...)
They couldn't revolt on their own. They couldn't topple a statue on their own (you'll have noticed early on, the U.S. military vehicles were ordered away from the field-of-view; so it could look like the Iraqis did this entirely on their own).
How can they build a nation on their own? With Shi'ia, Sunni and Kurdish factions, how can they hold a federation together?
Yes, even the French and Prussians aided the Americans during the revolution, after the Americans demonstrated their ability to stand on their own against the British Crown.
I believe there will be the peacekeeping security force, the provisional government, the continuing flow of humanitarian aid, the western contractors to rebuild. Nevertheless, in the end it's up to the Iraqis whether this is a success or failure.
They need too much handholding; I see Yugoslavia after the fall of Tito more likely than a new Mid-Eastern democracy. We all know how Yugoslavia turned out.
Hopefully I'm wrong, we must remember the Iraqis have only been free a blinking of an eye on historical time scales, and they need the same care and support as any newborn baby. They must grow up quickly.
You can't fault the Iraqis for wanting to do the job with what they had at hand, but a rope wasn't going to be adequate to pull down a metal statue. But working with their new friends, the U.S. Marines, the tyrant's statue came tumbling down.
Fortunately, the Iraqia not going to HAVE to build a nation on their own; we're going to help them.
And we have some experience with welding a group of diverse ethnic and religious groups into a nation, because we have done it ourselves.
I would like to point out couple things.
First President of the USA KNEW that there was weapons of mass destruction and funny think he ALSO KNEW THAT IRAQ WAS THE SECOND COUNTRY HAD THE MOST OIL IN MIDDLE EAST. Well anyway they have FREED the iraqi people but the funny thing there iz a BIG BILL FOR IRAQ for about 400 billion :) But how the iraqis are gonna pay that oh let me think they have all the oil why don't you give to USA. Oh I almost forgot where are those CHEMICAL WEAPONS hahaha. Who can guaranty that USA is not gonna use their nukes against any other country like they did to JAPAN. It's in USA's history that killing civilians started with Indians killing women and children was their mission then i am gonna jump to ww2 bombing to civilian cities waz the biggest mascara in the world history. Now Iraq I wonder what is next. Let me point out couple more things then i'll leave in peace. YEAR 1993 TURKISH PRIME MINISTER WANTED FREE IRAQI PEOPLE BUT ANSWER FROM USA WAS "NO". USA doesn't want any terrorism in the world right? then why the fuck they are supporting the world biggest terrorist nation Kurds. Well that is interesting. Year 1991 in germany kurds killed 21 civilians, 1993 11 french students were murdered by kurds i can list hundereds of terrorist acts here done by kurds. Well I just have one more thing to point out that WHAT USA IS GONNA DO ABOUT NORTH KOREA. They have unknown # of nukes and chemical weapons?