The Day Saddam Hussein’s Statue Came Down

On the Media

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4.6 • 9.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How one toppled statue came to define the Iraq War.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is On the Media, I'm Brick Gladstone.
0:03.6	This week marks 20 years since George W. Bush on the USS Abraham Lincoln in front of a banner
0:11.4	that red mission accomplished uttered these words.
0:15.1	My fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended.
0:20.8	In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.
0:29.2	One month earlier in the Iraqi capital, there was another moment to victory declared.
0:34.7	It too did not stand the test of time.
0:38.2	On the right hand part of the screen, which we've been watching now for an hour and a half,
0:42.0	Iraqi citizens at first throwing shoes at the statue,
0:45.0	been wrapping a rope around the neck of the statue now being helped out by a US tow truck vehicle
0:53.3	to bring down the statue.
0:55.0	And again, here you have the marine up there.
0:58.7	What is he doing?
0:59.8	Oh, there he is.
1:00.6	He's throwing an American flag.
1:02.3	Yeah.
1:03.3	Yeah.
1:04.3	The right leg of the left leg is going to a piece of the debris coming off the statue.
1:09.6	And now it's all...
1:14.3	A cheer goes around the square, people are waving their hands.
1:19.3	And the statue, the hollow statue of Saddam is left angling from this marble clinic.
1:26.4	It was, perhaps, the most televised event of the Iraq War.
	...

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