Seldom has a “tipping point” in a war been so readily evident as it was in Baghdad’s Firdos Square on Wednesday. There, a crowd of hundreds of Iraqis, assisted by U.S. Marines, looped a rope around the neck of a huge statue of Saddam Hussein and yanked it from its 25-foot pedestal. The statue dangled stubbornly for a few moments–a metaphor for the regime’s desperate clinging to power over the past few days. Then it clattered to the ground.
The crowd surged forward, cheering, stomping and dancing on the statue, pelting it with garbage, pounding it with shoes, celebrating wildly. American soldiers smiled and accepted the hugs and kisses of jubilant Iraqis.
Moments later, the battered statue’s head was being dragged by chain through the streets of Baghdad. A small band of men followed, still pounding it with shoes.
The military tipping point of the war could probably be traced to battles days earlier, when troops secured Baghdad’s international airport and then pushed into the city over the weekend. But the dramatic demise of the Saddam statue represented a tipping point of another sort, one that is more important for the future of this country. It was the emotional tipping point for many Iraqis. It was the long-awaited moment that they finally realized that Saddam Hussein and his brutal dictatorship were over.
After decades under the boot of a tyrant, they came to the square in the heart of the Iraqi capital to taste freedom. “I’m 49, but I never lived a single day. Only now will I start living,” one Iraqi religious leader told the Associated Press, as he banged at the base of the statue with a sledgehammer.
Still, the crowd in the square was relatively small. Many Iraqis shrank back, wary, fearful of the emotions unleashed, and wondering what would happen with the fall of night. There had been looting reported, and pockets of armed resistance. The fighting, American authorities warned, was not over.
Ever since the war began, there were questions about why more Iraqis did not welcome allied troops more demonstrably. One oft-repeated reason: They weren’t sure the allied troops would finish the job of toppling Hussein. They were terrified of retribution; Hussein’s security apparatus was dying, but still dangerous. And there was another important reason, one that American leaders dare not forget if they are to help build a democracy in Iraq: Even those who celebrated Hussein’s downfall are uneasy about how long American troops will remain.
For many, the images of this day will be what they remember of Gulf War II. The statue toppling, giant portraits of Saddam Hussein in flames, the Iraqi people exultant.
In one way, those images were a satisfying antidote to the last few days of videos of Hussein, smiling broadly, surrounded by shouting sycophants as his empire crumbled. Even the so-called Iraqi minister of information, who had lied so brazenly about the progress of the war, was nowhere to be found.
This was a day when official briefings were unnecessary. This was the day the fog of war lifted. And the whole world could see the truth.
