The statuary arts have been much improved in Baghdad today. Most broadcasters carried, live, the scene from Fridos Square of the some Iraqi lads taking a whack at the statue of Saddam Hussein. After some of US soldiers with a tank recovery vehicle showed up, the job got done nicely.
The downside was a soldier who put US colours on the statue for about 30 seconds. This was just enough time for Arab media to have a shit fit worldwide and will be pointed at for years to come that the US were invaders, not liberators, Imperialist bastards, Palestine, yadda, yadda, oil prices, yadda, yadda, yadda.
The critical part of the tape, where the same soldier took down the US colours and put up a pre-Gulf War I Iraqi flag will be conveniently overlooked by those who have their own agenda to push. That is the problem with live history: It gets excerpted and edited to prove the point of the commentator. Those who are deeply bent and ranting about the momentary lapse of taste should just take a Valium and look at the larger picture.
Fortunately, the US soldier who put the US Flag on the statue is going to be given a choice of punishment:
1: Standing guard at Elmendorf AFB in Alaska for the next two years.
2: Back to Washington to live with Ari Fleischer for six months. Then, six months living with Victoria Clarke, Mistress Ilsa, She-Wolf of the Pentagon.
I’m certain the soldier would prefer standing outdoors in Alaska in the winter.
With the statue down, there was one last telling clip. Iraqis had snapped the head off the statue and were dragging it through the streets on a chain. Every few feet someone would run up to wallop the bronze head with a shoe or a stick.
If you don’t have a real head to parade through the streets, then the statue head will do.
RoadDave 