[lbo-talk] collapsing statues

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

At 11:01 PM -0400 4/9/03, Paul_A wrote:
>There are statues and symbols in U.S. control that are particularly 
>onerous to Baghdad oppositionists and some were the scene of 
>symbolic events.  This stutue has no distinction nor signature 
>location (in fact it was put up last year). However, THIS statue was 
>DIRECTLY in front of the Palestine Hotel, where many of the 
>'cityscape' cameras had been set up.  I should even add to Nomi's 
>list: the Iraqi flag that was pulled out was quite symbolically to 
>all Iraqis the PREVIOUS Iraqi flag.  Someone just happened to be 
>walking by with it in his pocket?

O say can you see....

*****   POSTED AT 12:34 PM EST
Wednesday, Apr. 9, 2003
Marines topple Hussein statue [Yoshie: the correct headline!]
By MARK MacKINNON
Globe and Mail Update

...Residents cheered as marines scaled the 15-metre statue, looped a 
chain around its neck and dragged it to the ground with an M88 
tank-recovery vehicle. The marines briefly covered the statue's face 
with a U.S. flag - moments later, perhaps mindful of Pentagon 
instructions to minimze patriotic flag-waving, they stashed the U.S. 
flag away and replaced it with a pre-1991 Iraqi flag....

<http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030409.wmack0409/BNStory/International> 
*****

*****   N.Y. Family Watched As Marine Hung Flag

NEW YORK (AP)--The world watched Wednesday as a Marine corporal 
clambered up a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad and covered its 
face with an American flag just before the monument was pulled down 
and torn to pieces by cheering Iraqis.

Also looking on raptly was Cpl. Edward Chin's family in New York.

``I thought, 'Oh, my son, you are making history, you are part of the 
Iraqis' liberation,'' his father, Stanley Chin, said after watching 
the image of his son broadcast on television all over the world.

Shortly after wrapping the flag around the towering Saddam's face, 
military officials--highly conscious of anything that could be 
interpreted as a sign of American occupation--ordered Chin, 23, to 
take it down. He then replaced it with an Iraqi flag....

<http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V1195.AP-War-Flag-Soldie.html> 
*****

*****   Regime's fall thrills area military families
By Pamela J. Johnson | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted April 10, 2003

..."I loved it when they pulled that statue down," said Veterans of 
Foreign Wars Hall manager Jackie Smith, 56. "I loved it when they 
took that dadgum American flag and put it over his face."

<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-asecfamreact10041003apr10,0,285206.story?coll=orl-news-headlines> 
*****

...that spectacle of the American people, by the American people, and 
for the American people.
-- 
Yoshie

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