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Rejoice, for the will of God has been done. We have a President that will stand for life and freedom and do the right thing! Truth and righteousness have won over falsehood and lies. This Orthodox song from South Africa is simply inspiring: http://www.orthodoxnet.com/audio/On_earth_an_army_is_marching_Alleluia_south_africa.mp3

Nader Tells Democrats to Relax, Rejoice 8 minutes ago By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Ralph Nader, facing the wrath of Democrats who blame him for Al Gore's loss in 2000, on Monday offered words of advice to party members who fear his candidacy will help re-elect President Bush. "I urge the liberal establishment to relax and rejoice," Nader told reporters at a news conference. "This is a campaign that strives to displace the present corporate regime of the Bush administration." Nader faces a daunting task in simply getting his name on the ballot in all 50 states....

(The following excerpts are from Better Homes & Gardens 1993 "Holiday Celebrations"; information & Christmas Cards furnished by Hallmark Cards, Inc.) Although the Christmas season has been celebrated for centuries, it wasn't until the last half of the 19th century that printed cards were widely exchanged. Until that time, only a few people sent hand-written Christmas messages - those who could read and write, and afford to pay a messenger. This changed in the mid-1800s, when many people were learning to read and write through free public schools. The passage of the Penny Postage Act in England in 1840...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 12/16/03 - Baghdad, Basra, Sadr City, Iraqis -liberated by the USA- celebrate Saddam's capture, World reaction BREAKING: Baghdad - Iraqis -liberated by the USA- celebrate Saddam's capture BREAKING: Basra - Iraqis -liberated by the USA- celebrate Saddam's capture BREAKING: Sadr City - - Iraqis -liberated by the USA- celebrate Saddam's capture BREAKING: Fallujah, Gaza, Khan Younis - Terrorists in the Palestinian-Occupied Terror-tories mourn Saddam's capture QFN ==== QUAGMIRE-FREE NEWS Exclusive to FReerepublic SOME PICTURES YOU MAY NEVER SEE IN THE GENERAL MEDIA Want to take a ride? World reaction on the capture...

<p>They thought that we would rue it. They doubted we'd do it. But now they must admit it, that succeed we did.</p> <p>First, let's just be happy. Let's feel a burst of joy.</p> <p>Let's not be boring people who Consider the Implications. Let's not talk about the domestic political impact. For just a day let's feel the pleasure history just handed us.</p>

Saddam's plight has released a torrent of conflicting emotions among Arabs, writes Ed O'Loughlin in Jerusalem. News of Saddam Hussein's capture was greeted by a chorus of cautious welcome from governments across the Middle East - but behind the official utterances many governments have decidedly more mixed feelings. Having hitched their wagon to Saddam's horse unwisely in the past, when they backed Iraq in the first Gulf War, Palestinian leaders for the most part remained quiet on the occasion of his final downfall. There was nothing from Yasser Arafat. But a leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas reflected the...

had just returned to my motel room in Port Augusta at 8.30pm on Sunday after a long working day in the power station. My wife rang me from Sydney: "Hadi," she said, "today is the day, they captured Saddam. May my father and young brother be comforted in their graves now." And she began to weep, remembering her father and brother, both assassinated by Hussein's regime. I wept, too. The joy was overwhelming. I danced and danced by myself. I wanted to share this moment with someone so I rang my colleague Tony Hodge in his room and told him...

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay were killed in a six-hour gunbattle with U.S. troops at a villa in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul Tuesday after a tip-off from an Iraqi, the U.S. military said. "We're certain that Uday and Qusay were killed," Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, told a hasty news conference in Baghdad after four charred bodies taken from the Mosul villa were flown to the capital. "They died in a fierce gunbattle," he said, adding they had barricaded themselves inside the house and fired small arms at...

France Ready for Postwar Role in Iraq By KIM HOUSEGO .c The Associated Press PARIS (AP) - France is ready to join the reconstruction of Iraq and help ensure self-rule is quickly restored despite U.S. resistance to a prominent French role, the foreign minister said Wednesday. ``France wants to be present at the side of the Iraqi people,'' Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said, adding the reconstruction effort should be supervised by the United Nations. A French diplomat, whom de Villepin did not identify, is in Baghdad to begin discussions with the various political and religious factions vying for power...

Thatcher was right. Sarandon is wrong. O welche Lust! ell, the war has been over for ages and ages — it seems so yesterday — and the press has been consumed with griping and sniping and pouting. But I'm still grateful. Still grateful and amazed at what U.S. forces accomplished. The country, with its allies, committed a great act. A noble and humane and necessary act: Don't let "them" make you forget that. According to Warren Hoge in the New York Times, Tony Blair has "avoided victory talk . . ." Far be it from me to advise the PM...

We all saw the scenes. The utter joy, the scenes of uncensored jubilation. Indeed, watching the euphoria did wonders for the soul. So you might have thought that the entire free world looked at the images of a liberated Baghdad with relief and with joy. After all, we hadn’t seen such a spectacle of repressive regime bashing since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Statues were pulled down, Saddam posters torn to shreds, finally, people were able to speak their minds. And what they have to tell us is horrifying and extraordinary. The London Times reported about the torture cells...

April 19, 2003Vigil During the Night of Easter Psalm: Saturday Week 18 Reading I Responsorial Psalm 1 Reading II Reading II Responsorial Psalm 2 Reading III Responsorial Psalm 3 Reading IV Responsorial Psalm 4 Reading V Responsorial Psalm 5 Reading VI Responsorial Psalm 6 Reading VII Responsorial Psalm 7 Reading VIII Responsorial Psalm 8 Epistle Responsorial Psalm 9 Gospel Reading IGn 1:1–2:2 or 1:1, 26-31a In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss,while a mighty wind swept over the waters. Then God said,"Let there be light,"...

Families of Seven Rescued POWS Rejoice By CHRIS ROBERTS .c The Associated Press EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Just two days after Fort Bliss mourned nine soldiers from the 507th Maintenance Company, ``great rejoicing'' began with word that five other members of the unit who were taken prisoner in Iraq are now free. ``When it all started it was like a nightmare,'' Joel Hernandez told NBC's ``Today'' show Monday about the capture of his brother, Army Spc. Edgar Alan Hernandez. ``We were just waiting for good news and we got that good news, and now it's time to celebrate.'' Hernandez...

Mideast Diary: How the fall of Baghdad will forever change Arab politics "They are pulling it down!" said the Al-Jazeera announcer to millions of Arab viewers watching as U.S. Marines helped Iraqi youths destroy the Saddam monument in Al Rasheed Street. "This is the beginning of a new history that will affect the whole Arab world." Five short days ago, Arab TV networks had shown a Saddam speech urging Iraqis to fight, and images of the leader walking around the streets of Baghdad. Saddam's message was that he was still alive, still defending the Arab nation against the "mercenaries and...

<p>WEST FARGO, N.D. -- Portraits are mustered in the comfortable living room of Hussein Weled's West Fargo home like a squad of impatient but determined guerrilla fighters. The two largest are portraits of Mustafa Barzani, the legendary Kurdish leader who died in exile in Washington, D.C., in 1979. One is of Barzani's son, Massoud, now president of the Kurdish Democratic Party, political arm of the Peshmerga -- Kurdish for "those who face death."</p>

Pro-war parade By Alan Piñon, Press & Guide Newspapers DEARBORN — Hundreds of people spontaneously took to the streets in celebration of the apparent collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime Wednesday morning. "We are celebrating because Iraq is going to be free," said Tawfiq Almawala. American and Iraqi flags were waved together, as the elated crowd sang songs and danced in the street. "We thank the mothers and sisters of people who died for our liberation. Iraqi blood has mixed with American blood. We’re going to be all together now," said Mohammed Albodry, originally from Iraq. Police were able to move...

Ari Alani, an Iraqi Kurd, wishes he could say thank you to U.S. and British troops nonstop. "I don't know how to say it enough times," he said Saturday as more than 50 Iraqi Kurds gathered at a park in this south Denver suburb to show appreciation for the campaign that toppled Saddam Hussein. "To fight for others is very nice, and it's not normal that people would do this," Alani said. Kurdish women in colorful saris and gold necklaces linked arms to dance. Men in hand-woven moccasins and balloon pants made from fine wool sipped coffee. Plates of rice...

Iraqi jubilation has anti-warmongers flabbergasted ALAN DAWSON The worst nightmare has come true for the anti-war, anti-globalisation, anti-American mobs. The people of Iraq say they have been liberated. It will be interesting to see how those who supported keeping Saddam Hussein in power _ unwittingly or purposely _ will squirm out of the predicament. Certainly, none of them will admit they were wrong. But they were. The Iraqi people did not organise to resist the American-British coalition, although The Guardian of London said on March 30 they already had. ``Instead of rising up to welcome the invaders,'' the paper thundered...

April 11, 2003, 1:50 p.m. Two Dreams Iraqi Americans celebrate. By Henry Payne DEARBORN, MICH. — "USA! USA! USA!" They came to the U.S. to realize the American Dream, but this week hundreds of Iraqi-Americans celebrated the Iraqi Dream — the end of Saddam Hussein's barbaric regime. Dearborn's neat, working-class streets in southeast Michigan are home to America's largest concentration of Iraqi Americans, and today they were transformed into a festival of American flags, confetti, beating drums, and cars honking their horns in jubilation at the news that Baghdad had fallen to U.S. troops. For the Bush administration, the stated...

<p>April 12, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday said he'll never forget how Saddam Hussein's statue came tumbling down in Baghdad as he fought back tears after visiting wounded troops who helped make history and free Iraq.</p> <p>"I don't think I'll ever forget - I'm sure a lot of other people will never forget - the statue of Saddam Hussein falling in Baghdad," Bush said, blinking hard to control his emotions after he and wife Laura saw the troops.</p>

LACONIA — The American flag plastered on the face of a Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad this week was carried to Iraq by a New Hampshire Marine. U.S. Marine 1st. Lt. Tim McLaughlin of Laconia was given the flag — which flew at the Pentagon on Sept. 11 — for helping rescuers the day of the terrorist attacks. On Wednesday, McLaughlin removed the flag from a sealed pouch and handed it to a fellow soldier. Then it was hoisted up the 20-foot bronze statue of the deposed Iraqi leader just before the statue was torn off its pedestal by a...

People around the world, and right here in southern Nevada, were glued to their TV sets as the dramatic events unfolded in Iraq today. One group that has been over come with emotion is Iraqi Americans living in our area. News 3's Ben Correa spoke to an Iraqi American who stayed up all night watching the coverage. Michael Mukhtar stayed up to 5 this morning. He says the images of Americans and Iraqis uniting to rip down a statue were amazing. Mukhtar says the time has come for the Iraqi people to experience freedom. It is history, a change of...

SANAA, April 11 (KUNA) -- Some Yemenis who had sentiments of admiration for the deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, now have different feelings toward the man, whose statues were downed and his posters were beaten with shoes in public places in the Iraqi war-stricken capital Baghdad. Saeed Abdullah, 40, who manages a popular cafe in the heart of the Yemeni capital, said the sudden disappearance of Saddam has become the main topic of daily debates among his customers, and protested that these discussions often heat up and turn into quarrels. Hamdi Ahmad, a government employee, said, "our sentiments toward...

Abbas Muhammed stood in front of the burned office of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party today. On his left, children hurled bricks at a bullet-pocked, scribbled-on portrait of Saddam. “When we heard of the advancing coalition,” said Abbas, 25, “we rose up and walked out into the streets.” Then he and his neighbors led 500 Kurdish peshmerga fighters and a handful of U.S. special operations troops to Iraqi offices and military garrisons. In yet another dramatic day in Iraq, the northern oil center of Kirkuk, a city of 600,000, fell from Saddam’s grasp. Thousands of Kirkukis danced, sang and cried with...

<p>The world watched yesterday as ecstatic Iraqi people toppled statues of the brutal dictator who had been oppressing and murdering them for decades.</p> <p>They cheered American troops, and kissed pictures of George Bush, and behaved in many ways contrary to those who had mistakenly predicted disaster for this foreign adventure of the president. Those who had done so must have been embarrassed to watch the images on the television screen, or perhaps averted their eyes.</p>

Statue Toppling Conspiracy? Almost Seen as U.S. “Conquest” ABC made sure viewers understood that the Arab media see the U.S. as occupiers of Iraq, and why they do. In a prime time special, Jennings characterized Middle East TV coverage as seeking to learn: “Is this liberation or occupation?” Cynthia McFadden declared that “the pictures that play in America as liberation play in the Arab world as domination.” Soon after McFadden's story, Robert Krulwich saw the toppling of the Hussein statue as a parable for how Arabs see the U.S. action in Iraq. Krulwich provided a very strange blow-by-blow account of...

A moment that spoke for America April 10, 2003 3:50 pm Marine Cpl. Edward Chin didn’t roll into Baghdad with his armored unit expecting to help pull down a huge metal statue of Saddam Hussein. The city was still a dangerous place, as events over the next few hours would make clear. But for a few minutes, Cpl. Chin was a worldwide media event as he scampered up the hoist of a tank recovery vehicle and fastened a chain around the neck of the statue, taking time to briefly drape the soon-to-be decapitated head with Old Glory. It was a...

<p>The most evocative news photo to come out of the liberation of Baghdad may be one of a young Iraqi man, dressed in a denim jacket, holding a home made poster celebrating the "Hero of the Peace" — George W. Bush — and kissing the president's faintly smiling photo.</p>

It took Cpl. Edward Chin just seconds to hang an American flag on the head of Saddam Hussein's statue in central Baghdad, but it's a move that's likely to be debated for years to come. The mood of Iraqi civilians was briefly muted in Baghdad Wednesday as Chin climbed up and covered Saddam's face with an American flag. The crowd's loud cheers faded, and in less than a minute the Stars and Stripes was removed from the massive statue and replaced with Iraq's black, white and red flag. Chin's move touched a sensitive chord among Arabs and irritated U.S. military...

JOY AS KIRKUK FALLS In scenes described as a pitch invasion, about 10,000 Kurdish fighters and ordinary families have streamed into the northern city of Kirkuk as it fell from Iraqi hands. Sky News' Peter Sharp reporting from the city said in the end the US and Kurdish fighters went in virtually unopposed. Shouting to be heard over the sounds of cheering and car horns, Sharp said uniforms were strewn over the road into Kirkuk as Iraqi forces who had fled, changed out of their uniforms and into civilian clothes. "The roads into the city have been packed for three hours in...

Victory is so sweet. The television images of Iraqi citizens celebrating the fall of Saddam Hussein are stirring. Statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled I've been saying for years that all people yearn to be free. It's a universal feeling. The Iraqi people were brutalized into submission. They could not have achieved their freedom without U.S. intervention. Isn't it ironic that in courageously defending our own country from terrorist attack we serve to liberate others. That's the way it always works. In World War II, the United States was reluctantly dragged into the conflict by a surprise attack on Pearl...

Pulling down statues is hard work. Yesterday, as TV images kept flashing back to the immense statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad being pulled down by U.S. Marines with the enthusiastic help of a crowd of Iraqis, I remembered a similar scene from some 47 years ago. The date was October 23, 1956. A gigantic bronze statue of Stalin dominated a vast stretch of Budapest's Dózsa György Avenue in a way similar to Saddam's statue in Baghdad. In fact, Iraq's dictator somewhat resembled the Soviet despot, in real life as well as in the way their respective sculptors chose to...

Iraqis in North Texas joyful 'A dream come true' for expatriates04/10/2003 By TODD BENSMAN / The Dallas Morning News News of Saddam Hussein's apparent downfall Wednesday filled expatriate Iraqis in North Texas with joy and led to impromptu gatherings where expressions of gratitude were directed at American combat troops. But beyond the general exuberance and expressions of glee, some Dallas-area Iraqis were planning to complete some unfinished business in their homeland. Haydr Alyadiri, one of several thousand Shiite Muslim Iraqis who fled brutal repression in the early 1990s, said he was making arrangements to return home to seek justice against...

US Marines Topple Towering Saddam StatueAgencies BAGHDAD, 10 April 2003 — US Marines pulled down a towering statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad yesterday to loud cheering by Iraqis flashing victory signs and flowers as the regime went out with a whimper in the heart of capital. After three weeks of war, US troops faced only sporadic gunfire as they moved up both banks of the Tigris River that divides the city to the applause of hundreds of civilians, some of them chanting, “Good, Good, Bush!”, while others indulged in widespread looting.Tanks had rumbled by late afternoon into the...

They came. They saw. They kicked his ass.FREEDOM!

REJOICING MINORITY FREE AFTER 35 YEARS I WAS at the centre of a popular uprising in Baghdad yesterday.At 10am I drove through the city with two Iraqis I have known for many years. They are both Shi’ites.We headed to Saddam City in the east of Baghdad, where about million people live in slum areas. It is a hotbed of discontent and Islamic fundamentalism, and yesterday, as we arrived, the lid blew off.There were no military, no police and no militiamen around. We saw people beginning to walk from their houses, looking about. We saw one group go into the home of...

The plump, veiled woman rolled her brimming eyes towards the heavens, as if filled with ecstasy. "He is our leader, our beloved leader, our wise leader, the father of us all," she sang, clasping her face with open palms. "He wins victory after victory, he cares for us all, he is everything to us." Iraqi children take great pleasure in stamping on a poster of Saddam The singer, whose polished performance contrived to be permanently on the brink of collapsing with emotion, continued for about 20 minutes. Until allied bombs blasted Iraqi television off the airwaves last week, this praise-singing...

Yesterday, the television viewers of the world watched the film version of Shelley's famous poem Ozymandias. The poet imagines a broken statue of a great tyrant from "an antique land". His "shattered visage" lies nearby with its "wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command". On the pedestal is written: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look upon my works ye mighty, and despair!" No such words were inscribed on the statue of Saddam Hussein that Iraqis and Americans pulled down in central Baghdad yesterday, but the message for the Arab world could not have been clearer: you do not...

A U.S. Marine M88 armored recovery vehicle pulls down a statue of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), April 9, 2003. Jubilant Iraqis tied a noose around a huge statue of Saddam in the heart of Baghdad and pelted it with shoes as the Iraqi president's 24-year rule collapsed in chaos Photo by Reuters Tv/Reuters

President Bush and Vice President Cheney declared themselves vindicated today as Baghdad fell to U.S. forces just 10 days after the administration suffered a barrage of second-guessing about its war plan. "They got it down!" Bush said this morning as he caught television coverage of a toppled statue of Saddam Hussein, according to an aide. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer called the scenes of joyful Iraqi defiance of Saddam Hussein's fallen regime "a powerful testament to mankind's desire to live free." "That includes, of course, the Iraqi people, like the president always said it would," Fleischer said.

Residents swarmed out onto the city streets today, suddenly sensing that the regime of Saddam Hussein was crumbling, and they celebrated the arrival of United States forces by tearing down a huge statue of Mr. Hussein in central Baghdad, with some help from American troops. In much of the city, throngs of men milled about - some looting, others blaring car horns or dancing and many tearing up pictures of Mr. Hussein. Offices of Mr. Hussein's Baath Party were vandalized. The White House said that President Bush watched on television as Mr. Hussein's statue came tumbling down. While the president's...

DEARBORN, Michigan (AFP) - Iraqi-Americans waved US flags, honked horns and danced in the streets Wednesday as the home of Ford Motor Company, long a magnet for Arab immigrants, rejoiced in the fall of Saddam Hussein. The regime of the Iraqi president collapsed under a blistering three-week war by US-led forces. As they digested the news on TV sets, the exiles kissed the sidewalks, old men threw candy in the air and groups of women chanted the praises of US President George W. Bush. The celebrations went on for hours as news of the fall of Baghdad came in....

B A G H D A D, Iraq, April 9 — Chaos has broken out in parts of Baghdad as jubilant crowds take to the streets to cheer U.S. troops and loot buildings across the city, signalling that Saddam Hussein's regime has lost control of the Iraqi capital. Reporting from Baghdad, ABCNEWS' Richard Engel said there were signs in some parts of the city that the Iraqi government was losing control as mobs took to the streets shouting anti-Saddam slogans, ransacking government offices and tearing photographs of the Iraqi leader. "You really get a sense that the government's control of...

- Kuwait, liberated from Iraqi occupation more than 12 years ago by a US-led coalition, joyously welcomed the end of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime. Kuwaitis largely spent the day glued to the nearest television screen, watching intently as US tanks rolled into central Baghdad and a jubilant Iraqi population received them with open arms. The Kuwaitis had given American soldiers the very same welcome when their country was freed from a seven-month Iraqi occupation in February 1991 after the Gulf War (news - web sites). For many here, the most symbolic of events was the tearing down...

Hussein Statue's Fall Slows Markets as Traders Stop to Cheer New York, April 9 (Bloomberg) -- The toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in a Baghdad square brought trading in the world's most active futures contract to a standstill. ``The crowd went crazy,'' said John Brady, a Eurodollar- futures broker working for Man Financial Inc. at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. ``We all clapped, and there were some `Yahoos!' that went up in the air.'' Trading in the futures, a gauge of expectations about three- month lending rates, stopped for about 30 seconds when the 20-foot bronze monument came down, Brady said....

Jubilant Iraqis Swarm Baghdad Streets By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and DAVID CRARY .c The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Jubilant crowds swarmed into Baghdad streets Wednesday, dancing, looting, defacing images of Saddam Hussein as U.S. commanders declared that his regime's rule over the capital had ended. ``The capital city is now one of those areas that has been added to the list of where the regime does not have control,'' Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at U.S. Central Command in Qatar. Even as they encountered sniper fire from roving bands of holdout fighters, Marine and Army units swept through the city,...

<p>BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- In sharp contrast to the previous few days, the streets of central Baghdad were not filled with gunfire and explosions Wednesday.</p> <p>Some residents hoping to return to their daily routines in the capital appeared to be lying low, fearing that pro-Saddam Hussein militias might be preparing more attacks.</p>

U.S. Troops Cheered In BaghdadApril 9, 2003 U.S. forces continue to gain control of more and more of the Iraqi capital - engaging in battles in some areas, especially against Iraq's poorly armed Fedayeen fighters - and meeting and returning sporadic gunfire in others. Air strikes continue on key targets - with coalition forces declaring air supremacy, while working to block any enemy forces that might try to either enter or leave the Iraqi capital. But in some parts of Baghdad Wednesday, Iraqis are celebrating, cheering U.S. troops and President Bush as they drive through, and looting is the...

Saddam's rule crumbles, looters rampage By Khaled Yacoub Oweis BAGHDAD, April 9 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein's rule collapsed on Wednesday as jubilant Iraqis welcomed advancing U.S. forces in Baghdad and rampaging looters attacked symbols of his power. Amid wild scenes, people gutted official buildings, dragging off anything they could carry from airconditioners to flowers. "People, if you only knew what this man did to Iraq," yelled an old man standing in the road, thrashing at a torn portrait of Saddam with his shoe. "He killed our youth, he killed millions." Joyful crowds threw flowers and cheered as U.S. Marines drove...