For once, Mohammad Aldouri, the Iraqi regime’s ambassador to the United Nations, was right. On April 9th, Mr. Aldouri appeared on U.S. television to say, “The game is over.” He made his admission on the day the U.S.-led coalition arrived in the center of Baghdad to be greeted enthusiastically by the citizens of Iraq’s capital city.
As U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, “it’s safe to say that the mood in the country is, in fact, tipping, at least in Baghdad”:
“The scenes of free Iraqis celebrating in the streets, riding American tanks, tearing down the statues of Saddam Hussein in the center of Baghdad are breathtaking. Watching them, one cannot help but think of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Iron Curtain. We are seeing history unfold events that will shape the course of a country, the fate of a people, and potentially the future of the region. 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”:
The Iraqi people are understandably happy at the prospect of life without Saddam Hussein. But there is much work to be done. And the coalition will not stop until the remnants of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime have been removed from every corner of Iraq.
The coalition is committed to capturing, accounting for, or otherwise dealing with Saddam Hussein, his sons, and henchmen. Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction facilities must be found and Iraq’s borders must be secured. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said there is still danger:
“This we can say with certainty. The tide is turning, the regime has been dealt a serious blow. But coalition forces will not stop until they have finished the job, the regime is removed, and all of the Iraqi people are liberated."
A free Iraq will be ruled by laws, not by a dictator. \
