posted April 09, 2003 at 9:07 a.m. MDTIt takes minutes for many able hands and some heavy equipment to topple the central symbol of a tyrrant ... after nearly three decades of ultimate horror. How many hundreds of thousands of innocents slaughtered and executed in that period? A million? How many tens of thousands imprisoned, tortured, raped ... hundreds? Decades of mundane terror at the hands of innumerable opportunists and sadists, directed by a man who knew very well the cruel game of power and wealth.
If the military adminstration is capable of some magnanimity (remembering how the Stars and Stripes were draped over the face of Saddam Hussein's statue in the penultimate moment) perhaps this can be the beginning of a new age of humane governance ... if. In the name of those uncountable thousands who suffered directly under that one dictator, let us strive to establish an unremitting committment to principles of justice and human dignity.
