The pro-Saddam cynics who’ve been poo-pooing the US war plan for Iraq are taking big gulps now that cheering crowds ransack the remains of the torture regime in Baghdad. MSNBC reports:
Reuters journalists watched cheering crowds sack the U.N. headquarters in the Canal Hotel to the east of the city center. One witness saw looters ransack sports shops around the bombed Iraqi Olympic Committee building, the effective headquarters of Saddam’s elder son, Uday.
And CBS News adds:
In parts of Baghdad the power vacuum and chaos are a boon to some civilians. People are both celebrating and looting.
“Freedom! FFREEEEDOM, YES!” yelled an older Iraqi man.
ABC News chimes in:
Iraqis cheered arriving U.S. troops and then went on looting rampages as vestiges of President Saddam Hussein’s authority collapsed.
And Fox News says:
“Thank you, thank you, Mr. Bush,” some of the looters shouted. One elderly man beat a portrait of Saddam with his show.
And CNN has the coup de grace:
But in the Baghdad suburb of Saddam City, residents took to the streets to celebrate the apparent end of the Iraqi regime. A Shiite Muslim leader told a group of 400 to 500 people, “The tyrant of the world is finished, thanks to the coalition. Thank God for Iraq the victorious.”
And just a few days ago, the anti-liberation crowd was talking about “fierce resistance”, “fighting to the last breath”, and “repelling foreign invaders”.
Not hardly, folks – it’s a party.