Jeremy Sapienza’s article today, US Soldiers Puzzled by Iraqi Resistance to Censorship caused me to remember this picture and Rajhul Mahajan just happens to have written an interesting anecdote about this statue, which sits on the pedestal the Famous Toppled Statue used to occupy, back before Iraq was free:
April 9, 2004 – the one year aniversary of the Great Saddam Statue Toppling Farce, Firdaus Square, Baghdad:
Leaving Iraq 1. Before we go to the airport, I tell the driver I’d like to take a picture of the statue in Firdaus Square. I want to be able to show people back home the ugliest thing in all of Iraq. He is skeptical about whether I will be able to — there is a permanent U.S. military detachment, complete with a big tank, guarding the Palestine Hotel and the Sheraton.
I approach the statue that has replaced Saddam Hussein’s and take several pictures. There are two old men sitting at the base; I wave to them and they wave back. Then, not satisfied with the fact that I have almost no pictures from my trip (on the trip to fallujah, I did the digital equivalent of keeping the lens cap cover on), I suddenly take leave of my senses. With my mind already wandering past Iraq, I forget that my body is still planted very firmly in Iraq. I swivel around to take a picture of the tank. Suddenly the men at the base of the statue erupt, jumping up and gesticulating wildly. I suddenly come back to my senses. the most dangerous thing you can do in Iraq is take a picture of an American soldier with a big gun pointed at you. If they don’t think you’re shooting at them, they’re likely to think you’re a journalist, which is even more dangerous. In front of the “Green Zone,” where the CPA headquarters are, there’s a sign that says, “No photography.” But nobody needs the sign; everyone knows.