Nice Job Bushie!

[Torque]

From my undestanding they had sealed off the area and imported a few dozen Arabs for the chorus line to follow.

Alone the same lines as the saving of Private Lynch hoax, storming a hospital while shooting blanks and rolling tape.

[deSelys]

Finally an interesting article from the BBC: here

It feeds both theories actually: sincere joy but from a very small group of Iraqis, the event seemed to have been used directly on the field (and maybe not carefully planned) by the army. Not a true staging, but definitely filmed in a way that made it seem much bigger than it was.

[Gixer]

Originally posted by Toad
One can indeed ask why you post such drivel, since the entire thing was shown live on TV as it happened.

Saddam statue toppled in central Baghdad

Toad,

If there was such joy by the Iraqi people in this then how come in those TV images you only see a few people, maybe a 100 or so at most?

It was just propergander.



...-Gixer

[Eagler]

amazing the lengths some will imagine to discredit & hate the US and her allies and any success they may achieve

[parker00]

you should care about your exact recalling of the event

Apparently you did not see the footage on TV that day. I won't say anything about the size of the crowd, but it was Iraqi's who first tried to pull down the statue, then after they couldn't a US tank moved over and helped pull it down.



68Parker

[deSelys]

Originally posted by Eagler
amazing the lengths some will imagine to discredit & hate the US and her allies and any success they may achieve

Oops sorry I forgot:

USA ackbar! USA ackbar! USA ackbar!....


Seriously, there is no 'hate' in my post. Grow a tougher skin. But the only success your country achieved during that event was a stronger support for the war at home after the broadcasting (+12%). For the Iraqis....well they weren't there.

Parker I haven't indeed seen the live coverage. I'm just pasting data from different sources. The BBC article states that a half dozen of young men were trying to pull down the statue when the Marines arrived. Would you qualify them as a 'crowd'?

[parker00]

Parker I haven't indeed seen the live coverage. I'm just pasting data from different sources. The BBC article states that a half dozen of young men were trying to pull down the statue when the Marines arrived. Would you qualify them as a 'crowd'?

Like I said, I won't say anything about the size of the crowd because it was small compared to what we thought it would be. I'm just saying, it was not the marines who first tried to pull down the statue, it was the Iraqi's.


68Parker

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by deSelys
Funny, I just saw a show on TV about this event. One some wide angle shots, you can see that there are at the utmost 100 people massed in one place of the perimeter. In the close-ups, you can see that this crowd is 50% journalists, 50% arabs (not necessarily native). According to the commentary, those peoples were mostly the drivers and translators working with the journalist.

You can indeed ask yourself why the US Army is taking down the statue, and not the Iraqi population (like it happened during the Fall of Berlin's Wall).

The event was staged, and there was no sincere cheering.

Lets not try and rewrite history shall we

I watched it live  flipping back and forth between several different new stations as it happened and saw the crowd start off fairly small (less then 100) and gradually grow to what was at least 1,000 at its height.
There was a hell of alot more then 100 people there.

I saw the satue come down. Started off witha couple of guys taking turns banging away at it with a sledge hammer and then a few people trying to bring it down with a rope (which turned out to be too short).

At that point they went and requested the help of the americans

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by deSelys
Before you care about how I look, you should care about your exact recalling of the event:

"  Despite uncertainty about Saddam's fate, cheering and chanting Iraqis danced in Baghdad's Firdos Square on a toppled statue of Saddam, dragged off its massive stone base by U.S. Marines in a tank.

Though there was a muted reaction from the crowd when a Marine draped a U.S. flag over the statue's head -- after one minute it was replaced by an Iraqi flag pre-dating the invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

After the statue was pulled down the Iraqis broke it into pieces and dragged its head around through the streets while others -- including children -- pounded it with shoes, an act considered a supreme insult in the Arab world."

The toppling happened first (after the flag scene). Then the 'crowd' showed its joy.

CNN got part of it wrong also. Might be a minor detail and I forget the exact name for it Im sure someone here will know  but it wasnt a tank. It was one of those vehicles used to tow damaged tanks. Like a giant towtruck.

I can understand CNN calling it a tank.
A Tank sounds more dramatic

[Toad]

I love the guys that didn't see it live telling the guys that did see it live how it was.

Was there 10's of thousands in the crowd? No.

But there was a crowd and it was more than 150.

As for crowd size, you might remember actual combat was still going on in and around Baghdad and lots of folks might have figured it'd be best to stay down for a while yet.

But you're welcome to form your own opinion from articles someone else wrote later. I'll just stick with what I saw.

[TheDudeDVant]

Originally posted by DREDIOCK
Lets not try and rewrite history shall we

I watched it live  flipping back and forth between several different new stations as it happened and saw the crowd start off fairly small (less then 100) and gradually grow to what was at least 1,000 at its height.
There was a hell of alot more then 100 people there.
 

You saw wrong guy. I saw it live on TV as well. Although it did look to be a larger crowd than it actually was, the numbers never approached 1000..  100 people would be a much better guesstimate. Besides, there are many many pictures from that day. Find a real one that shows 1000s...

[Gixer]

Amazes me the propergander that some of you are willing to believe.

It was a staged media event! There was no more then about 150 people there in the square. Though it was promoted as a massive uprising. Some state that those Iraqis that were there, were from a pro american milita anyway.

Find any image on the net or from the TV footage at the time and at most you can only find a few people in the shots. And often the same person or group of people repeated.





...-Gixer

[AKIron]

Damn right it was staged, and damn well done too. What's wrong with that?

[Gixer]

Originally posted by AKIron
Damn right it was staged, and damn well done too. What's wrong with that?

Everything, as the media and Bush admin portrayed it as a public uprising helped by the military to bring down the statue. Thing is if the army didn't get involved then or anytime at a later date that statue would still be standing.



...-Gixer

[Holden McGroin]

Originally posted by Gixer
... Thing is if the army didn't get involved then or anytime at a later date that statue would still be standing.

You're absolutely correct, and Saddam would still be in power too.

I had some faith in this guy though.