Posted on 03/22/2003 10:44:39 AM PST by anncoulteriscool
Laughter and tears as troops liberate village
By Dexter Filkins, Safwan
March 23 2003
Happiness and dread rose together yesterday from this desolate border village, where some of the first Iraqis liberated by American and British troops found the joy of their deliverance muted by the fear that it was too good to last.
As hundreds of coalition troops swept in here just after dawn, the heartache of a town that has felt the hardest edges of Saddam Hussein's rule seemed to burst forth, with villagers running into the streets to celebrate in a kind of grim ecstasy, laughing and weeping in long guttural cries.
Zahra Khafi, a 68-year-old mother of five, cried as a group of American and British visitors came to the town shortly after Saddam's army had appeared to melt away. "I'm not afraid of Saddam anymore."
All through the day here, as American and British tanks and troop carriers rumbled through the town on their drive on the nearby city of Basra, the village of Safwan seemed to celebrate the collapse of Saddam's local rule with a glance over its shoulder.
Only hours before, the residents said, the Mukhabarat, Saddam's security force, had held Safwan in a state of near-permanent terror. Even now, the villagers said, Saddam's agents were still among them, waiting, as they did 12 years ago, for their moment to return. "There, there are Saddam's men, and if you leave me they will kill me right now," said a trembling Najah Neema, an Iraqi soldier, who said he had torn off his uniform and thrown down his gun and ran away as the US Army approached at dawn.
Like many residents here, Mr Neema feared that the Americans would lose their will, as they had in 1991, when an American-encouraged uprising across southern Iraq fell before a withering assault by Saddam's regime that drew no American riposte.
One of those people who Mr Neema pointed to with such fear was Tawfik Mohammed, a well-dressed man who stood a few yards away. Mr Mohammed laughed at the suggestion that he had ever worked for Saddam's regime. He was headmaster of the local school, he said, and a respectable man.
"God willing, the Mukabarhat will return," Mr Mohammed said with a wave as he walked away. A crowd that had gathered round him gave a nervous laugh.
With such trepidation among the Iraqis, much of the celebrating today was performed for them by American Marines, who tore down every larger-than-life image of Saddam that decorated the village. They pried loose one by tying it to the bumper of a troop carrier, and another by cutting it up with a dagger.
"Feels good," said Oscar Guerrero, a Marine from San Antonio, Texas, as he ran his blade through the canvas likeness of the Iraqi leader.
"I wish he were here in person."
Some of the Iraqis looked on as if in a daze. Others seemed to be resisting the temptation to cheer.
"How would you like it I were to cut up a poster of President Bush?" demanded one of the Safwan villagers, but his remarks were quickly drowned out by catcalls from the crowd around him.
One startling image after another tumbled forth from the chaos of battle. Just up the road towards Basra, the objective of the coalition's advance, a group of Iraqi soldiers stood before a group of Western reporters, waving white flags in surrender. A little further up the road stood an Iraqi tank, not surrendering, with its barrel pointed in a menacing way.
As the Marines secured their hold on Safwan, an Iraqi man drove up to the same checkpoint in another white pick-up. This one contained two Iraqi villagers, both severely wounded in the bombardment overnight. One of the men had suffered horrific burns across most of his body. The outer layers had been burnt away, and they had peeled away from his body like paper wrapping.
"There is not much we can do for him up here," one of the Marines said.
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/22/1047749993326.html
FMCDH
Pull up a comfy chair, put up your feet, and relax.
Just watch out for ZOT, he's the bad one with smelly breath, ugly yellow fangs, and fantacizes about being spanked..... :)
Also, can anyone blame the Iraqis for feeling a bit unsure? Why do you think it so important to find out if Sadaam is dead or not, or even more so, the key higher ups? Once that happens, and the pockets of Republican Guard resistance are contained, the battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqis to believe in democracy, not the US, begins.
Substitute UN for American and you will get the truth here.
It's amazing the Iraqis can think this... George Herbert Walker Bush did so much damage to our country's credibility when he left the Iraqi resistance to die. This seems to be the biggest reason they resist us.
I don't think anyone can disagree that Iraqis have every reason from recent history to feel unsure.
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