In Iraq, following the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003, and the looting that ensued, “CentCom [Central Command] ignored the call for the Coalition to have a strong military police presence in all areas falling under the Coalition’s control. When looters saw that the new authority was unwilling or incapable of projecting its power, […]
Category: quotes
4/9/2003
In Iraq, “The Ba’ath Party had over two million members by the time the regime was overthrown [on April 9, 2003]. It was by no means exclusively, or even predominantly, Sunni Arab. Shi’a, and even Turkomen and a few Kurds were well represented throughout the Party structure, but the Party’s upper echelons, and its key […]
4/9/2003
On April 9, 2003, “At the Pentagon, Secretary [of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld declared, ‘Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ceausescu in the pantheon of failed, brutal dictators, and the Iraqi people are well on their way to freedom.’ ” – Todd S. Purdum and The New York Times Staff, […]
4/9/2003
“Looting broke out in Baghdad on April 9 [2003] at almost the moment that the last vestiges of the old regime’s presence disappeared from the capital. People stormed out of the poorer areas of east Baghdad intent on stripping anything and everything of value from public buildings. The same thing happened in cities across Iraq.” […]
4/9/2003
In Iraq, “April 9 [2003] was the symbolic end of Saddam’s rule. His government collapsed as the US army occupied the banks of the Tigris River, and US Marines swept into downtown Baghdad… Watching some of the coverage between meetings, the US president [Bush] noted how small the crowds seemed to be.” – Bob Woodward, […]
4/9/2003
“The invaders took control of central Baghdad on April 9 [,2003]. Saddam had vanished, and other Iraqi leaders had surrendered or run away.” – Andrew Langley, Bush, Blair, and Iraq: Days of Decision, Page 33 […]
4/9/2003
“At 11:27 a.m. [on April 9, 2003, President] Bush spoke with [Spanish President Jose Maria] Aznar. ‘The strategy [in Iraq] is paying off,’ the president said. …Two days earlier, they had bombed a restaurant where they believed Saddam and his sons were, though they had not yet seen proof that any survived the first night’s […]
4/9/2003
In Iraq, “By April 9 [2003] Baghdad had fallen, and two days later U.S. and Kurdish fighters captured the final stronghold of Mosul to the north. In a campaign that lasted just over three weeks, 300,000 coalition troops had been deployed and only 140 had lost their lives.” – Peter Lance, 1000 Years For Revenge, […]
4/8/2003
“SIGINT [signals intelligence] revealed that what was left of Saddam Hussein’s regime refused to accept the fact that they had been defeated. As late as April 8 [2003], the day before Baghdad fell, intercepted Iraqi satellite phone messages showed that Hussein’s son Qusay, the Republican Guard commander, continued to believe that Iraq was winning the […]
4/8/2003
“On 8 April [2003], bin Laden issued a tape urging people to take up arms and join a jihad against the Muslim governments which supported the US invasion–namely Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. He also addressed those already carrying out guerrilla operations inside Iraq to start a campaign of suicide bombing: ‘Do not […]