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Barack Obama should listen to Peter Arnett. Arnett is the well-known war correspondent who not only covered the long war in Vietnam for the Associated Press, for which he won the Pulitzer, but who covered the shameful evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon in April 1975. Most recently, he was embedded in Baghdad, reporting from the front. The year 1975 was when the United States abandoned the people of South Vietnam to their fate as soldiers of the Communist North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong descended upon the city. They did so after the South Vietnamese Army, our...

Baghdad fell.

Usama bin Ladin has issued a message to the American people, broadcast on Saturday on Aljazeera television. A full and exclusive translation follows: "Oppression will only go against the oppressors. "This is a message from Usama bin Muhammad bin Ladin to the American people regarding your aggression in Iraq. Peace be upon those who follow the righteous path. "Some have the impression that you are a reasonable people. But the majority of you are vulgar and without sound ethics or good manners. You elect the evil from among you, the greatest liars and the least decent and you are enslaved...

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2006 – Three years after his brigade seized control of Baghdad's international airport from Iraqi forces' control, Army Col. William Grimsley said he believes that country is taking the critical first steps toward reclaiming its past greatness. Grimsley, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Combat Brigade Team during the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, said history - not current events - will tell the true story of Iraq's metamorphosis. And that story will show how Iraq ultimately emerged from almost 40 years of a regime that ignored the people's needs and undermined its potential, Grimsley,...

IRAQ today marked the third anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, with hundreds of Shiites expressing joy at the ouster of the former dictator while the former Sunni elite denounced the presence of US-led foreign troops in the country. Shiites rallying in the capital took a huge poster of Saddam emblazoned with the words "fall of the tyrant" and trampled on it repeatedly, in memory of the toppling of the former ruler's statue in a Baghdad square on April 9, 2003. Chanting slogans in favour of embattled Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the demonstrators also marked the anniversary of...

Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Saturday said the United States has made "serious mistakes" during the Iraq war that have led to the rising violence the country now faces. "We made some serious mistakes in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Baghdad," Powell told a crowd of thousands at the McCormick Place conference. "We didn't have enough troops on the ground. We didn't impose our will. And as a result, an insurgency got started, and . . . it got out of control." Now, American troops must "stick with the people of Iraq" until order is...

There have been scenes of jubilation in Baghdad as US tanks rolled into the very heart of the Iraqi capital, confirming that the government of Saddam Hussein has been ousted from power. In the main square in Baghdad, a group of Iraqi men attempted to pull down a massive statue of Saddam Hussein in an unprecedented show of contempt for the Iraqi leader. The metal plaque at the base of the statue was torn off and the statue's marble plinth attacked with a sledgehammer. The men scaled the statue to secure a noose around its neck but were unable to...

WASHINGTON, April 7, 2006 – Three years ago April 9, the world looked on, captivated by compelling television images of Iraqis ripping down a towering statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, and burning images of the Iraqi dictator on the streets. The statue of Saddam Hussein topples in Baghdad's Firdos Square on April 9, 2003. Three years later, Iraqi forces increasingly are taking the lead in securing their country.   Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld lauded it as an important sign of things to come. "We're seeing history unfold and events that will shape the course of a country, the fate...

WASHINGTON, April 7, 2006 – Insurgents may still be working to derail the democratic process in Iraq. But it's important to look at the bigger picture as a three-year milestone approaches, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesperson said during a briefing from Baghdad yesterday. "On the 9th of April (2003) ... the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square was toppled," Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told reporters. "Sometimes we get so caught up in the event of the day ... we forget progress has been made over the last three years." Saddam's regime was toppled and now Saddam is being...

Recently the BBC decided to conduct an informal survey around Iraq: "Two years after the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in Baghdad, marking the fall of the city to US-led forces, BBC Arabic.com asked seven Iraqis for their thoughts on how life has changed for them since the conflict." The results were surprising--at least for the BBC, whose attitude toward the liberation of Iraq has always been lukewarm at best. They were surprising for me too, not so much in what the seven Iraqis had to say, but that the BBC chose to run the story. Here's Saad, 32,...

Peace of history April 2005 ... British troop puts a smile on the face of Iraqi kids         By TREVOR KAVANAGH Political Editor IT has been a long time coming, but anti-war campaigners are finally admitting something good has come out of the liberation of Iraq two years ago. The turning point came in January as eight million courageous civilians risked life and limb to vote for a regime that might not slaughter them. It was accompanied by Libya’s decision to end its hostilities to the West. And it gathered pace as first the Palestinians, then...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES FORT HOOD, Texas -- President Bush yesterday likened the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad two years ago to the fall of the Berlin Wall and called it part of a "global democratic revolution." "Many of you have recently returned from Iraq," Mr. Bush told 25,000 cheering soldiers on a sun-drenched field. "Others are preparing to head out this fall -- some for a second tour of duty." "Whether you're coming or going, you are making an enormous difference for the security of our nation and for the peace of the world," he added. "I came...

President Bush visited the troops at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. The President was cheered wildly by over 7,000 troops as he thanked them for their sacrifices to our Nation. The President later met with the families of over 30 Soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan

(AP) President Bush speaks about the War on Terror to troops at Fort Hood, Texas, Tuesday, April 12,...Full Image FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) - President Bush visited soldiers at the largest U.S. military base Tuesday, marking the two-year anniversary of the end of Saddam Hussein's regime by saying it will be remembered along with the fall of the Berlin Wall as one of history's greatest moments.Bush thanked the soldiers at Fort Hood who have recently returned from Iraq or are heading there this fall, but said it isn't time to start bringing U.S. forces home."Iraqis want to be led...

What a difference two years can make. Commenting on the news that Saddam Hussein's nemesis, leader of the people Saddam liked to gas, has now been elected President of Iraq, Mohammed Saleh, a 42-year old Kurd interviewed by the media on the streets of Kirkuk, had this to say: "Today Jalal Talabani made it to the seat of power, while Saddam Hussein is sitting in jail. . . . Who would have thought." History is, of course, full of delicious ironies. Not the least that the authorities have permitted Iraq's Prisoner No. 1 to watch from his prison cell the...

Protests Mark Fall of Baghdad April 10, 2005 BAGHDAD, Iraq — Tens of thousands of Shiites (search) marked the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad (search) with a protest against the American military presence at the square where Iraqis and U.S. troops toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein two years ago. The protesters back Muqtada al-Sadr (search), a radical Shiite cleric whose militia led uprisings against U.S. troops last year, and their large numbers reflected frustration both with the U.S. government (search) and anger toward the Sunni Arab-led insurgency. "This huge gathering shows that the Iraqi people have the strength...

Baghdad -- Two militant Muslim clerics, one Sunni and one Shiite, have called for demonstrations today to protest the continuing U.S. occupation of Iraq two years after the toppling of President Saddam Hussein. If the protests materialize, they will be the first large-scale rallies to occur under Iraq's new government, whose most senior leaders -- President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari -- were formally installed this week. Jafari is now forming his Cabinet. Moqtada al-Sadr, a young militant Shiite cleric with a large following in Baghdad's huge slum of Sadr City, has urged a peaceful march from Firdaus...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Images of jubilant Iraqis toppling a 40-foot statue of Saddam Hussein and pelting it with garbage and shoes in Firdos Square defined the moment Baghdad fell to U.S. troops two years ago, a prelude to what many hoped would be democracy and freedom in a new Iraq. Now radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is urging his supporters to mass at the square Saturday and mark the anniversary by directing anger at the U.S.-led coalition. "The occupation forces started with this place, and now from this same place we want them to leave Iraq," said Sheik Abdul-Hadi...

January 19, 2005 No.849 MEMRI TV Project Special Report - Commander of Saddam Hussein's 'Army of Muhammad' Confesses: We Received Money and Arms from Syria and Iran The following are excerpts from the televised confessions of Muayed Al-Nasseri, who commandedSaddam Hussein's "Army of Muhammad" throughout 2004. The confessions were aired by an Iraqi TV channel that operates from the UAE, Al-Fayhaa TV, and were monitored and translated by the MEMRI TV Project. The following are excerpts; to view the clip, visit http://memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=492: [1] 'The Army of Muhammad was Founded by Saddam Hussein After the Fall of the Regime' Interrogator: "What...

In 2003, more than a month before the invasion of Iraq, I wrote in the Weekly Standard that the forthcoming fall of Baghdad "may turn out to be one of those hinge moments in history — events like the storming of the Bastille or the fall of the Berlin Wall — after which everything is different. If the occupation goes well (admittedly a big if), it may mark the moment when the powerful antibiotic known as democracy was introduced into the diseased environment of the Middle East, and began to transform the region for the better." At the time, this...