Thursday April 10, 2003

April 10, 2003‘Simple always works best in an editorial cartoon. At least two other cartoonists came up with the same idea after U.S. troops pulled down the massive Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad. Almost every cartoonist referred to the image in some way this year when other “regimes” or personalities came crashing down – among them Ernie Eves, Michael Jackson, Conrad Black and California Governor Gray Davis.’ - Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 10, 2003

The Fall of Baghdad

Graeme’s Gallery 2003

As residents of Baghdad celebrated the apparent fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday cautioned that portions of Iraq “are still hotly contested and will be for some time.”

In central Baghdad’s Firdos Square, cheering and chanting Iraqis danced atop a toppled statue of Saddam, dragged off its massive stone base by U.S. Marines in a tank recovery vehicle. 

The Iraqis broke the statue into pieces and dragged its head through the streets, while others — including children — pounded it with shoes, an act considered a supreme insult in the Arab world. 

“Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ceausescu in the pantheon of failed brutal dictators, and the Iraqi people are well on their way to freedom,” said Rumsfeld. 

The war is over according to Mohammed Aldouri, Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations. 

“The game is over. I hope the peace will prevail and the Iraqi people at the end of the day will have a peaceful life,” the ambassador said, adding that he had no relationship to Saddam. (CNN)