Saddam's statue: the bitter regrets of Iraq's sledgehammer man

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Kadom
al-Jabouri swings a hammer at the base of the statue of Saddam Hussein
in Baghdad in April 2003. Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP



Ten years ago, Kadom al-Jabouri became the face of the fall of
Baghdad. Pictured with a sledgehammer while attempting to demolish the
huge statue of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in the city's Firdos Square, Jabouri's jubilant act of destruction made front pages around the world.
For
Tony Blair and President George W Bush, the image was a godsend,
encapsulating the delight of a grateful nation that their hated dictator
had been ousted. The US networks showed the statue's fall for hours on
end.
However, almost exactly a decade later, the "sledgehammer
man" – who was helped by a US tank carrier to finally topple the statue –
furiously regrets that afternoon and the symbolism of what he was
involved in. "I hated Saddam," the 52-year-old owner of a motorcycle
spares shop told the Observer. "I dreamed for five years of bringing down that statue, but what has followed has been a bitter disappointment.
"Then
we had only one dictator. Now we have hundreds," he says, echoing a
popular sentiment in a country mired in political problems and
corruption, where killings still occur on an almost daily basis.
"Nothing has changed for the better."
Video from the time shows
Jabouri, a huge bull of a man in a vest top with close-cropped hair,
battering the statue's concrete plinth with furious intensity.
What actually happened that day is still the subject of rival claims. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
suggested that the toppling of the statue was stage-managed. Jabouri
denies that. His claim is contested by the American soldiers involved,
including the crew of the M-88 tank tow truck that eventually pulled the
statue down. Two years ago [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]that
the hammer belonged to them and that a first sergeant called Leon
Lambert handed it to Iraqis who then took turns using it, Jabouri being
the first of them.
These days Jabouri is still recognisable as the
man from those images, the former champion power-lifter who spent 11
years in Abu Ghraib prison under Saddam. Despite his formidable
physique, he could only break off chunks of concrete. Even with a rope
supplied by the crew of the M-88, the crowd was still not strong enough
to shift it. In the end it was the vehicle that pulled it down.
Asked why he had been in prison under Saddam, Jabouri answers only
that his crime was "semi-political". He has said in the past that he was
sent to jail after complaining that Saddam's son, Uday, had not paid
him for fixing his motorbike. Eventually he was released in 1996.
Whatever
his subsequent regrets, the day the statue came down remains etched in
his memory. "I was in my shop here on my own. It was around noon. I
heard that the Americans were in the suburbs. I went to get my
sledgehammer and headed to Firdos Square," he said. "I had the idea in
my mind of knocking down the statue so I went to do it. There were
secret police still in the square and fedayeen [Saddam's paramilitary forces]. They were watching what I was doing. But my friends surrounded me to protect me, if they shot.
"The
Americans came 45 minutes later. The commander asked if I needed a hand
and pulled it down. It was just me at first. Then 30 of us. Then 300.
In the end there were thousands in the square. It was all about revenge
for me, for what the regime had done to me, for the years I spent in
prison."
The regrets began, he says, two years later under US
occupation, which he loathed. Nothing since has changed his mind – not
the end of the occupation nor the handover of control to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
"Under
Saddam there was security. There was corruption, but nothing like this.
Our lives were protected. And many of the basics like electricity and
gas were more affordable. After two years I saw no progress. Then there
came the killings, robberies and sectarian violence."
He blames
Iraq's politicians and the Americans for what has happened to Iraq. "The
Americans began it. And then with the politicians they destroyed the
country. Nothing has changed. And things seem to get worse all the time.
There's no future. Not as long as the political parties running the
country are in power," he said.
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The "saturation coverage" of the fall of Saddam's statue – according to the most in-depth analysis by the New Yorker's
Peter Maass two years ago – "fuelled the perception that the war had
been won, and diverted attention from Iraq at precisely the moment that
more attention was needed, not less".
The reality, as seen by
Jabouri and other Iraqis with the benefit of hindsight, is that the
worst times were only beginning, not coming an end.
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He blames
Iraq's politicians and the Americans for what has happened to Iraq. "The
Americans began it. And then with the politicians they destroyed the
country. Nothing has changed. And things seem to get worse all the time.
There's no future. Not as long as the political parties running the
country are in power," he said.

The reality, as seen by
Jabouri and other Iraqis with the benefit of hindsight, is that the
worst times were only beginning, not coming an end.

You got to agree with him. And he means the American politicians TODAY!! They took over for Bush and UK man Blair by the 2008 elections, but after those two years from the fall of the statue he mentions in 2003 the political parties had already began to change.. ;)