April 9th 2003 -the Saddam statue in Firdos Square

[underpants]

On April 9, 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. (Go to article.)

1940 Germany invaded Denmark and Norway during World War II.

2003 Jubilant Iraqis celebrated the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, beheading a toppled statue of their longtime ruler in downtown Baghdad.

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/index.html

[annabanana]

1. "Jubilant Iraqis ". .

Chalabi and that other guy.

[stellanoir]

2. Anne Garrels of NPR was there.

She provides some of the only thoughtful reporting from Iraq IMHO.

Her interpreter looked at her as the statue fell and said something like, "What you have to understand is that the Americans need to take control. . .and I mean complete control. . . or their will be years and years of destruction and chaos."

We failed miserably, not that I ever thought it was a great idea in the first place.

[SteinbachMB]

3. I remember watching that

...and wondering: where is everybody?

[tibbiit]

4. I was watching

and saw the crowd shot on cnn. all the people. Then the bbc came on and showed the other shot, small group and large empty square.
It was because of this, on this day April 9th 2003 that we TURNED OFF ALL Cable News channels in our house. (except the daily show and colbert)

TUrn that shit off people! You will never miss a thing.
tib

[underpants]

5. I rarely watch it anymore

it does seem surreal when you aren't conditioned to it and know the side/back/actual story on news items.