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In Reply to: Saddam's regime in Baghdad collapsing, Iraqis cheer posted by Newswatcher on April 09, 2003 at 08:54:39:
This is reminiscent of the time in my country when the ruthless dictator Marcos was toppled by people power in 1986. When news spread that he had fled the country (thanks to the US), everyone got caught up in the passion of the moment. There was jubilation in the streets, people were crying tears of disbelief that finally it was over, there was dancing and singing and everyone going wild (including the soldiers). Then shortly afterwards the looting began. Hordes of poor people, oppressed for so many years stormed the presidential palace, started taking out whatever they could lay their hands on. Very much like what is hapening in Iraq right now. Then there were indiscriminate destruction of anything that had Marcos' face on it, buildings, advertisements, etc. or any office linked to him or his cronies, including broadcast stations. (Note: Just to show how much hatred there is still left, a landmark up north of his face carved in stone against the mountains recently got bombed and demolished by remaining rebels, almost 20 years since his overthrow).
I sincerely hope a strong government gets installed by the Iraqis soon. A populist one won't cut it. I speak from experience. My country suffered years of retrogression under a popular democratic but weak successor. It'll be interesting to watch if history will repeat itself or not on the other side of the planet.
