Three years ago, today. The end of that bronze masterpiece best described as "The Great Leader Hails a Cab."
The end of creatures who bear the official title "violator of womens' honour" (i.e. official rapist). Of torturing small children to make their parents confess. Of the people-shredders, into which victims were fed feet first. So the operators would not be deprived of the pleasure of their screams. The end of The 10 Plagues of Iraq.
A day that also included the liberation of a childrens' jail and torture facility, thus reminding us forever of the opportunity - and the justice - represented by that statue's fall. As Michael Totten reminds us - with pictures - it was not the only one.
Exposes of the love life of tyrants (complete with haiku), the fall of the inhuman monsters and would-be successors Uday & Qusay Hussein in a shoot-out with US forces, and Saddam's own ignominious capture would all come, in time. He sits now in Baghdad courtroom, charged with genocide.
Whatever happens, this is something America will always be able to be proud of. Sic Semper Tyrannis.
Here is an article about what would have happened if Saddam were removed in 1991 instead of 2003 - an alternative timeline.
Joe:
I tried to send you a manual Simple TrackBack by Kalsey but the response was that an unrecognized error had occurred, so I don't know if you'll get it. And I'm not very adept at the tech stuff.
Just wanted to let you know.
Which post was the trackback from (URL)?
I don't think it really matters when we got rid of Saddam. The fact is that we have troops there NOW that need our support. Thanks to the courage and strength of many Gold Star families over the past week, their story (that is getting ignored in MSM) has been told on sites like this. God bless them for standing with their heads held high. Their sacrifices will never be forgotten!
This is a very powerful and moving post. Thank you for reminding us of what this photograph symbolizes. I think we often forget how important it was to overthrow Saddam, even if there were no WMD. I cannot imagine the fear in which the people of his country must have lived in. And now they are given hope and freedom. That is something that we should forever take pride in - thank you for reminding us of this.
The people of Iraq live in fear now -- of bombings, death squads, and street crime run amok. Not to mention the prospect of civil war. When the dust settles Iraq could still end up with a leader just as bad as Saddam.
This war will end up costing us over $1 trillion by the time we pay for all the veterans benefits and the interest on the money we're borrowing. There is no end to the number of ways we could have helped more people more dramatically for $1 trillion.
The toppled statue makes a nice picture, but it isn't worth the price.