[Note: I really, really, really wanted to post the video of this, but apparently lack either the correct program or simply the IT acumen to save and post either the C-Span video of the press conference, or the simple YouTube capture of the announcement. Someday . . .]
The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)’s conference center was packed tightly on Sunday, December 14, 2003, as the three men walked to the podium. Adnan Pachachi, the silver-haired patrician serving as President of the Iraqi Governing Council, led the way. He was followed by Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, the handsome statesman in charge of America’s struggling effort to reconstruct Iraq. Following the two diplomats was Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the dour commander of Coalitions forces in Iraq. When they reached the massive podium emblazoned with the CPA’s seal, they turned to face the crowd of western, Iraqi, and regional Arab reporters who filled every seat. A tangible electricity was in the air when Bremer approached the microphone at 3:15 PM Baghdad time.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, pausing briefly, “We got him!”
Bremer did not have to even say a name for the assembled throng to know to whom he was referring. Instantly, Iraqi reporters sprang to their feet and began cheering wildly, forcing Bremer to wait half-a-minute for the emotional outburst subsided before resuming his remarks. Later, when LTG Sanchez showed video of the haggard looking fugitive undergoing a medical exam, there were again shouts, cries, and weeping from the Iraqis in the audience. Several Iraqi reporters cast aside any semblance of objectivity and vented the emotions suppressed during 35 years of tyranny, shouting: “Death to Saddam! Down with Saddam!”
Outside the heavily fortified International Zone, Baghdad erupted in joy. People took to the streets, many in tears and holding tattered pictures of family members killed during Iraq’s reign of terror. The normally reserved Iraqi judges and lawyers studying the Iraqi High Tribunal statute – under which the dictator would eventually be tried – “dissolved in a frenzy of joy and palpable relief as Iraqis literally jumped and hugged and cried on each other’s shoulders. It was a scene of joyful pandemonium.” Celebratory gunfire was audible throughout the Iraqi capital, and continued to crackle throughout the night.
For a brief period of time, U.S. forces and the Iraqi people once again were united in joy and a sense of deliverance. For the first time since the early days of the occupation of Iraq, American flags appeared on the streets of Baghdad. Moreover, in the weeks following Saddam’s capture, U.S. forces obtained the best intelligence they had seen in months. Along with the money and guns, Task Force 121 found a briefcase with Saddam that contained a letter from a Baghdad insurgent leader. Contained in the message were the minutes from a meeting of a number of resistance leaders who came together in the capital. These documents provided targets for further raids in the ensuing days, and within a week these raids had netted over 200 wanted personnel. Knowing Saddam was in U.S. custody, some detainees who had previously withheld information about insurgent networks began talking. At one point some 500 insurgents petitioned for amnesty, and cell leaders put out feelers for surrender.
Consequently, in the four weeks after Saddam’s capture, attacks against Coalition forces in Iraq dropped 22 percent. After suffering 83 deaths in November 2003, U.S. forces reported fewer than half that number – 38 – in December. Major General Ray Odierno, who saw attacks against his 4th ID soldiers drop from 22/day to 6/day, told the media in January 2004 that loyalists of the former regime “have been brought to their knees.” LTG Sanchez was even more optimistic, saying: “I expect that the detention of Saddam Hussein will be regarded as the beginning of reconciliation for the people of Iraq and as a sign of Iraq’s rebirth.”
Other U.S. officials were more restrained in their assessments than Sanchez. In his address marking Saddam’s capture, President Bush congratulated U.S. forces, but warned: “The capture of Saddam Hussein does not mean the end of violence in Iraq. We still face terrorists who would rather go on killing the innocent than accept the rise of liberty in Iraq.” On December 17, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) concluded: “Saddam’s capture will have little impact on foreign terrorist operational planning in Iraq. Sunni extremist groups are fighting against the U.S.-led occupation, not to restore the Hussein regime to power. Saddam’s capture will have little impact on their motivation and operational capacity.”
Events would unfortunately prove President Bush and the DIA to be more prescient than LTG Sanchez.
No comments:
Post a Comment