David Zucchino
Los Angeles Times
July 3, 2004
The Army's internal study of the war in Iraq criticizes some efforts by its own
psychological operations units, but one spur-of-the-moment effort last year
produced the most memorable image of the invasion.
As the Iraqi regime
was collapsing on April 9, 2003, Marines converged on Firdos Square in central
Baghdad, site of an enormous statue of Saddam Hussein. It was a Marine colonel
— not joyous Iraqi civilians, as was widely assumed from the TV images
— who decided to topple the statue, the Army report said. And it was a
quick-thinking Army psychological operations team that made it appear to be a
spontaneous Iraqi undertaking.
After the colonel — who was not
named in the report — selected the statue as a "target of opportunity,"
the psychological team used loudspeakers to encourage Iraqi civilians to assist,
according to an account by a unit member.
But Marines had draped an
American flag over the statue's face.
"God bless them, but we were
thinking … that this was just bad news," the member of the psychological
unit said. "We didn't want to look like an occupation force, and some of the
Iraqis were saying, 'No, we want an Iraqi flag!' "
Someone produced an
Iraqi flag, and a sergeant in the psychological operations unit quickly replaced
the American flag.
Ultimately, a Marine recovery vehicle toppled the
statue with a chain, but the effort appeared to be Iraqi-inspired because the
psychological team had managed to pack the vehicle with cheering Iraqi
children.
— David Zucchino