Tempers flare as flags stolen from Uday, Qusay graves in Saddam's village

AFP ^ | 8/3/03

[saquin]

AWJA, Iraq (AFP) - Tempers flared as the two Iraqi flags covering the earthen graves of Saddam Hussein's slain sons were stolen in the night under the noses of US soldiers guarding the cemetery in the fallen dictator's birthplace.

"Nobody here would have done such thing. It is the Americans who have done that," said Walid Jassem, the local grocer in a village where most people claim allegiance to Saddam's family and were showered with luxury during his 24 years in power.

The idea of US soldiers here in this bastion of the old regime burned the hearts of some. The fact they guarded the graves of Saddam's male heirs was positively blasphemous.

"I have not gone there and will not go there as long as the soldiers are there," Jassem fumed.

The hard brown dirt where the bodies lay was now marked by bricks, as the Americans controlled traffic to the cemetery where the bodies had been laid to rest in a low-key ceremony Saturday that US troops barred onlookers from joining.

US soldiers searched cars Sunday as they left the grounds and said they had seen no one remove the Iraqi flags.

[saquin]

He he he.

Oops, where'd the flags go? They were here a moment ago. :-)

Those bas**rds didn't deserve to be buried with the flag of the Iraqi people they had terrorized for so long.

[skr]

Next stop, e-bay.

[Normal4me]

Doesn't look like they planted them too deep does it? Hell, no wonder someone stole the flags. :-)

[demlosers]

Nobody here would have done such thing. It is the Americans who have done that," said Walid Jassem, the local grocer...

Yeah, sure Wally...

[Exeter]

Local Rafah Berbuti also lauded the brothers. "They lived like kings and died as heroes," he said. "We regret that we were not alongside them when they fought the Americans."

If Mr. Berbuti had been alongside the brothers then, he'd probably alongside the brothers right now...

[moodyskeptic]

I'm certain that the charming Hussein family imagined they'd be buried in a palatial mausoleum with corny domes of gold. The photo of their actual resting place is hilarious! Perfect!

When watching the Bush tactics, patience always pays off in some unexpected way. Chess, not checkers.

[lepton]

The idea of US soldiers here in this bastion of the old regime burned the hearts of some. The fact they guarded the graves of Saddam's male heirs was positively blasphemous.

Oh, well.

[lepton]

The idea of US soldiers here in this bastion of the old regime burned the hearts of some. The fact they guarded the graves of Saddam's male heirs was positively blasphemous.

Oh, well. They're lucky they weren't buried in pig-fat at the bottom of a latrine.

[breakem]

clearly done by a light wind

[I still care]

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Ozymandias, by Shelley

[DoctorMichael]

I'm STILL surprized their bodies weren't cremated and the ashes scattered secretly like they did with the convicted NAZIs after Nuremburg.

We are WAY too accomidating to these idiots.

[The Great RJ]

Why didn't we just cremate these guys and scatter the ashes in the desert rather than give them a martyrs grave?

[Michael_S]

Let us see:
They've imprisoned and tortured children,
They've raped women and killed their families,
They've imprisoned and/or killed innocent men and women for nothing more than looking at them the wrong way.

BUT THEY WOULD NEVER STEAL A FLAG.

[solzhenitsyn]

Someone's done the right thing. The flags clearly had to come off those graves. As long as the flags were in place, patriotic Iraqis would never feel right about using their new public urinal.

[Ben Hecks]

Perhaps this cemetery should be named "Sandal Hill".

[Mfkmmof4]

Maybe they will still be if the Saddam worshippers get in there and dig them up :)

[FreedomCalls]

Those bas**rds didn't deserve to be buried with the flag of the Iraqi people they had terrorized for so long.

Who let that happen anyway? We have just created a martyr's shrine -- a place for Ba'athists to rally around. Show me the graves of Hermann Goering, Jodl, Frank, Keitel, Ribbentrop, etc. You can't. They were cremated and the ashes scattered on the orders of the Nuremburg tribunal so as not to create a shrine and a rallying point for a revamped Nazi party. Why are we treating these guys with better care than we did Nazis? Is it that we are too PC? Is Bremer a fool?

[Republic]

I think many thousands of Iraqi's, touched by the cold hand of those miserable psychopaths, deserve the chance to spit upon their graves.

[joesnuffy]

If one were able to witness what is being done to them at this very moment............
one would shrink back in horror

[ChadGore]

Can you say ebay ?