NP - SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT

[David Morris]

Doug dosen't like it, but...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-war-baghdad10apr10011417,1,5002635.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dworld

BAGHDAD -- When U.S. Marines drove into downtown Wednesday, the Republic of
Fear began to crumble.

Iraqis who had spent their lives under the brooding shadow of Saddam Hussein --
afraid that even a whisper to the wrong person could land them in prison or
worse -- suddenly were not only talking, they were shouting.

"Victory!" yelled a man in a long white shirt, as if he had won a war. And
perhaps he had.

Now, the people of Baghdad could state openly what frequent visitors to Iraq
had always assumed -- that they detested the regime, that they were forced to
lie and that they felt that they had wasted their lives because of the
megalomaniacal whims of Saddam Hussein.

Ayad William, 30, a Christian who works at the Hotel Petra, said that "people
are very happy that Saddam is gone." Reminded that a few weeks earlier people
in this same neighborhood had been chanting "Yes, Yes Saddam," a pained look
crossed his face.

"It was dangerous, it was impossible, to say, 'Down with Saddam.' But we have
lived 35 years with the Baath Party. Today I am very free and I can talk. And I
say, 'Thank you, Mr. Bush.' "


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