Iraqi regrets toppling Saddam statue
Salam Faraj; 10/4/08
Ibrahim Khalil, who five years ago took part in the iconic toppling of a giant statue of Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad, said on Wednesday he now regrets taking part in the hugely symbolic event. “If history can take me back, I will kiss the statue of Saddam Hussein which I helped pull down,” Khalil told AFP on the fifth anniversary of the statue’s toppling. “I will protect the statue more than my own self,” Khalil said in Firdaus Square alongside a monument erected where Saddam’s statue once stood before US marines and Iraqis strung a chain around its neck and brought it crashing down. The action marked the end of Saddam’s ironfisted regime and served as a premonition of the dictator’s own end on December 30, 2006, when he was hanged in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.