Thus Always To Tyrants

This cartoon originally appeared on April 10, 2003, and is one of over 450 cartoons in our book Black & White World II.

On April 9, 2003, CNN reported: U.S troops topple Saddam statue.

U.S. troops pulled down a giant statue of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein hours after coalition tanks rolled into the center of Baghdad Wednesday.

The statue in Firdos Square fell after a small group of Iraqis climbed the monument and wrapped a rope around its neck. A group of Marines then backed an armored vehicle up to the monument, attached a chain to the statue and pulled it down.

And this: White House urges caution at 'historic moment'.

Three weeks into a war that divided Europe and raised questions at home, the Bush administration on Wednesday savored the images of jubilant Iraqis celebrating the crumbling of Saddam Hussein decades-long grip on power.

It was, said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, a "historic moment."

Throughout the day, administration officials blended cautionary notes with their welcoming comments about the events transpiring in Iraq. There was, said some administration officials, a sense of vindication at the White House following weeks of questions about the progress of Operation Iraqi Freedom and continued criticism at home and abroad about the U.S.-led war.

And this: Saddam's regime in ruins.

The toppling of a giant bronze statue in Baghdad -- despite battles raging elsewhere and some anarchy on the streets -- is being greeted as the symbolic crumbling of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime.

While the U.S. White House warns that there will be days of fighting ahead, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations has conceded the inevitable.

"The game is over. I hope the peace will prevail and the Iraqi people at the end of the day will have a peaceful life," Mohammed Aldouri said Wednesday in New York, adding that he had lost contact with Saddam Hussein's regime.

When he was asked if Iraq would "surrender," he said: "I don't know."

Today CNN reports on the status of the tyrant: Hussein grins, reads poetry during cross-examination.

A grinning and poetic Saddam Hussein was cross-examined for the first time in his trial Wednesday, saying he approved 1980s death sentences against Shiites because they were trying to assassinate him.

Hussein, standing alone as the sole defendant in the courtroom, dodged some questions from prosecutors over his role in a crackdown against Shiites in the 1980s, giving long speeches calling the court "illegitimate." ...

The session came a day after prosecutors indicted Hussein on separate charges of genocide, accusing him of trying to exterminate Kurds in a 1980s campaign that killed an estimated 100,000 people. The charges will be dealt with in a separate trial.

In the current trial, Hussein and seven former members of his regime are charged in a crackdown against Shiites launched after a 1982 assassination attempt against Hussein in the town of Dujail. In the sweep that followed, 148 Shiites were killed and hundreds were imprisoned, some of them undergoing torture.

Posted by Forkum at April 5, 2006 08:18 PM