S8 Ep763: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad witnessed the fall of Baghdad in April 2003 and the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue — a media spectacle involving more journalists than Iraqis. Transitioning from an architect to an "accidental journalist," he documented the immediat
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
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1903
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| 0:35.7 | This is CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor. Here's John Batchelor. |
| 0:42.6 | It is April, 2003, Baghdad, the spring of 2003. Reith Abdullah Haar is in Baghdad, and his new book, A Stranger in Your Own City, Travels in the Middle East Long War. |
| 0:59.2 | Record from that moment the entry of the Americans into the tragedy and mystery of Iraq in the 20th century and before. |
| 1:09.8 | Reith, congratulations and good evening. You are in Baghdad |
| 1:13.7 | observing these moments before the American armor column arrives. And at some point, you see a gathering |
| 1:21.5 | of American soldiers and Iraqis, Baghdad citizens, around a statue of Saddam Hussein, and from the Meridian and Sheraton Hotel, |
| 1:31.1 | I'm following your reporting. What do you observe, and what does it tell you now all these years |
| 1:36.3 | later about the American presentation to the citizens of Iraq? Good evening to you. Good evening. I mean, you know, it's the most |
| 1:46.6 | important image is the image that keep repeating itself again and again on TV as if it's that |
| 1:51.7 | image to justify all that came after. I stood there. I saw an American Marine unit. I followed them. |
| 2:01.1 | I stood in the square and I saw these a few Iraqis who tried to topple the statue. |
| 2:07.4 | And, you know, I have to say the crowd of journalists gathered around the statue, which |
| 2:12.4 | much larger, much bigger than the Iraqis themselves. |
| 2:16.7 | And of course, all what you see on TV cameras is a group |
| 2:19.6 | of Iraqis, but if you expand the lens a bit, if you stand on the other side, you would see a much |
| 2:25.0 | larger group of journalists, foreign journalists, gathered around the statue, waiting for the |
| 2:29.8 | statue to be toppled. And of course, eventually the Marines kind of bring one of the big kind of trucks and one |
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