The ubiquitous Nick Popaditch.

April 10, 2004 6:32 AM

The ubiquitous Nick Popaditch.A year ago, Staff Sgt. Nick Popaditch was in Baghdad's Al-Firdaws Square, celebrating with a cigar shortly before his tank toppled the statue of Saddam Hussein.
A year later in Falluja, cameras were there again, capturing the scene shortly after his tank was hit by an RPG near Fallujah. Staff Sgt. Popaditch lost his right eye as a result of his injuries. Meanwhile, Al-Firdaws Square was being closed to the Iraqi public, after posters of Muqtada Al-Sadr were plastered on the statue which replaced that of Saddam Hussein.
posted by insomnia_lj (7 comments total)

Meanwhile, the Marine who famously put the flag on the statue "is troubled that the war that seemed to have been won when he stood atop the statue in Baghdad's Firdos Square shows no sign of ending."
posted by CunningLinguist at 6:39 AM on April 10, 2004

In Iraq, Without Options

So now the president's war of choice has led to an occupation with no good options.

The Bush administration's plan is to hand over control of Iraq to the Iraqi Governing Council on June 30. Just how that council will sustain itself in power, however, is increasingly unclear after the upheaval of the past few days. Its own police force, which the United States has spent time and treasure recruiting and training, all but collapsed during the uprising of Moqtada Sadr's Shiite militia.

In Kufa, Najaf and Baghdad's own Sadr City, the government's new cops handed over police cars and police stations to the militia without any reported resistance. In some instances, the cops actually joined forces with Sadr's militants.

So much for our thin blue line.

Within Iraq, there are thousands of current and potential gunmen willing to fight for their people and their creeds -- Kurdish automony, Sunni hegemony, Shiite control, an Islamic republic. But the force charged with defending a pluralistic, united Iraq just went AWOL under fire.

posted by y2karl at 6:46 AM on April 10, 2004

In Kufa, Najaf and Baghdad's own Sadr City, the government's new cops handed over police cars and police stations to the militia without any reported resistance. In some instances, the cops actually joined forces with Sadr's militants.

This is in line with the interview of a Iraqi policeman I watched on BBC WorldNews.

" We don't know whether to stand with the Americans or with Sadr."
posted by RubberHen at 7:55 AM on April 10, 2004

" We don't know whether to stand with the Americans or with Sadr."
The Marines have a motto: "Marines Best Friend Worst Enemy".

Words escape me remembering these soldiers historically battled their way to Baghdad in 2003.
posted by thomcatspike at 8:21 AM on April 10, 2004

The seige of Falluja is reminding me more and more of the Serb's seige of Sarajevo. Unwilling to use indiscriminate bombing and hoping to keep their own casualties to a minimum, the Serbs settled into a sniper and artillery seige of the city. Of course, the difference now is that the US has far more surveillance and aerial support, but the slow trickle of news from Falluja seems to indicate that this is not proving decisive and a rather sad-yet-familiar pattern is emerging.

The U.S. military says its operations are precise and it does not target civilians or women and children.

posted by meehawl at 11:24 AM on April 10, 2004

In a previous posted thread, it was stated several times the US media was not showing the true pictures.

Wounded children lie in a makeshift hospital in Falluja, bandaged and bloodied from fighting between U.S. forces and Sunni guerrillas that has raged through the town's alleyways for days.(from mehawl's link)
As the start of the battle the news in my area showed this for their story about the battle.
posted by thomcatspike at 11:40 AM on April 10, 2004

Has this photo of the '"toppling" been debunked yet?

So far it seems Popaditch was just another pawn in the PR machine and it cost him his eye. Another Bush victory at the cost of a soldier I guess.

Oh yeah, and one of the flags from 9/11 just happened to be there.
posted by skallas at 12:01 PM on April 10, 2004