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The regrets of the man who brought down Saddam


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At the bottom is says that, in all fairness, most Iraqis do prefer it under the US occupation. I'm not sure if the poll is accurate but jus tthe fact that its at least close is scary.

 

 

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The regrets of the man who brought down Saddam

 

Audrey Gillan

Monday March 19, 2007

The Guardian

 

http://www.guardian .co.uk/frontpage /story/0, ,2037220, 00.html

 

His hands were bleeding and his eyes filled with tears

as, four years ago, he slammed a sledgehammer into the

tiled plinth that held a 20ft bronze statue of Saddam

Hussein. Then Kadhim al-Jubouri spoke of his joy at

being the leader of the crowd that toppled the statue

in Baghdad's Firdous Square. Now, he is filled with

nothing but regret.

 

The moment became symbolic across the world as it

signalled the fall of the dictator. Wearing a black

vest, Mr al-Jubouri, an Iraqi weightlifting champion,

pounded through the concrete in an attempt to smash

the statue and all it meant to him. Now, on the fourth

anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, he says:

"I really regret bringing down the statue. The

Americans are worse than the dictatorship. Every day

is worse than the previous day."

 

The weightlifter had also been a mechanic and had felt

the full weight of Saddam's regime when he was sent to

Abu Ghraib prison by the Iraqi leader's son, Uday,

after complaining that he had not been paid for fixing

his motorcycle.

 

He explained: "There were lots of people from my tribe

who were also put in prison or hanged. It became my

dream ever since I saw them building that statue to

one day topple it."

 

Yet he now says he would prefer to be living under

Saddam than under US occupation. He said: "The devil

you know [is] better than the devil you don't. We no

longer know friend from foe. The situation is becoming

more dangerous. It's not getting better at all. People

are poor and the prices are going higher and higher."

 

Saddam, he says, "was like Stalin. But the occupation

is proving to be worse".

 

According to an opinion poll of 5,000 Iraqis carried

out over the past month, 49% say they are better off

now than under Saddam, and 26% say life was better

under Saddam. More than one in four said they had had

a close relative murdered in the past three years.

 

· Regrets of the Statue Man, the first of three films

by Guardian Films to mark the fourth anniversary of

the invasion, will be broadcast on ITV news at 6.30pm

and 10.30pm tonight

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I served overseas and am not trying to be inconsiderate, but it's worse off now because the Iraqi people have made it this way. They themselves have been given a chance to do good and bring peace to Iraq, but will/can't get over there hatred for each other. It's not us that is killing and brining pain it is the suicide bombers and the secretarian violence.

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I served overseas and am not trying to be inconsiderate, but it's worse off now because the Iraqi people have made it this way. They themselves have been given a chance to do good and bring peace to Iraq, but will/can't get over there hatred for each other. It's not us that is killing and brining pain it is the suicide bombers and the secretarian violence.

 

I think you mean Sectarian not secretarian. Regardless, I've read enough about the war in Iraq to know that this Sectarian BS is a front. My father is in Iraq right now and he says that people are fed up of fighting and just want peace. There are alot of factions that do want the fights to continue but they are all outside entities. Sorry man, no offence, but saying that the Americans arn't that ones "killing and brining pain" is plain stupid. Did you miss the whole thing about the civilian murders and rapes in broad daylight of innocent Iraqi women and children? Or the whole Abu Ghraib and similar incidents? You might be innocent of this but please don't insult us by washing all American hands of the "killings" and "pain".

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Oh boy Iraq...

 

Conversations like these normally up a few cans of worms normally makes for some good discussion though.

 

I agree, its not even a war anymore or even a war on 'terror' which the US Governemnt is spending 110 Billion on this year.

And the whole 'wmd' buzzword.

 

bah.

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