Word: saddamism
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When the next history of Iraq is written, the chapter on the stormy years following the U.S. invasion will be bookended by two iconic images: one of elated Iraqis in Firdos Square in 2003 raining their loafers and boots on a fallen statue of Saddam Hussein, and the other of President George W. Bush ducking flying footwear at a 2008 Baghdad press conference during the last official visit of his term. In many Eastern cultures, hurling a shoe at someone is a grave insult. Iraqi TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi's decision to fling his size 10s made...
...become almost a clichéd gesture to hurl shoes at a poster, a flag or a statue during demonstrations in the Arab world. Perhaps the most iconic example was when U.S. troops helped bring down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdous Square on April 9, 2003. Hundreds of Iraqis assailed the giant metal corpse, beating it with their shoes in one of the defining images of the fall of Baghdad. How ironic then that President Bush's farewell trip to Iraq will be marked by the image of an angry Iraqi and his shoes. (See pictures...
...that were made...over a decade or so, before I arrived in President, during I arrived in President" •the seemingly obvious - "I don't feel joyful when somebody loses their life, nor do I feel joyful from somebody loses a job" - is clumsily stated by •wish that Saddam actually had had weapons of mass destruction is expressed...
When I first visited Kirkuk after the end of the U.S. war against Saddam, tens of thousands of families were streaming in from Kurdistan, all claiming to be returning natives. Many took refuge in or around the city's giant soccer stadium, expecting to be resettled soon. Protecting the shantytowns were the Kurdish militias known as the peshmerga, who had fought alongside the U.S. against Saddam. As loyal allies, the Kurds were demanding that the U.S. hand over Kirkuk...
Iraq's U.S.-appointed administrator, L. Paul Bremer, demurred, though he gave Kurds key political appointments. On my next visit two years later, Arab neighborhoods were being depleted as the Kurds sought to drive out Saddam's supporters. Turkomans and Arabs remained adamant that many of the Kurdish newcomers were not Kirkuk natives but had been sent to try to secure a majority before a new census and hence win a referendum, mandated by the new Iraqi constitution, on the city's future...