Another Symbol of Hussein's Regime Comes Down
By JOEL BRINKLEY
AGHDAD, Dec. 2 — They stand as monuments to megalomania, four massive heads of Saddam Hussein, each three stories high, sitting atop the Republican Palace, which serves as home for L. Paul Bremer III, the American administrator of Iraq.
As dusk fell over the capital this evening, an Iraqi construction crew lifted one of the busts from its cradle as scores of smiling Americans and Iraqis watched transfixed. They broke into cheers as soon as a crane lifted the frowning edifice and began lowering it gently to the ground — perhaps looking upon the decapitated head as a surrogate for the living and breathing version, who remains an elusive fugitive.
Mr. Bremer was among the onlookers and called the heads "symbols of the odious former regime.
"I've been looking at these for six months," he added, "so I am delighted to see them coming down. We're sick of them."
After weeks of debate, the occupation authorities requested bids from Iraqi firms for the job of removing the four busts, which are positioned at four corners of the huge palace and glower at all who pass beneath.
Twelve companies bid for the work, including the firm that actually installed the monuments after Mr. Hussein commissioned them in 1996. But only one company said it could assure that the three-ton busts could be lowered to the ground safely. And so that company won the contract, for $27,000 — a bargain price, given that it took all day today to remove just one of them.
The company declined to be identified publicly; the workers said they were afraid they would become instant targets for the Hussein loyalists terrorizing much of Iraq.
Still, a supervisor said his men, even with the danger, were thrilled to take the job.
"Taking Saddam down from his palace, that means a lot to us," he said. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime job."
The heads depict Mr. Hussein wearing a pith helmet with an Arab headdress draped over it and a feathery plume at the helmet's peak — the uniform for the early 20th-century Moslem warriors who fought to drive Ottoman occupiers from the Arab world.
Throughout his rule, Mr. Hussein defined himself as heir to the greatest leaders and warriors of this region's past. Similar busts atop the palace that used to belong to his son Qusay, now deceased, depict Mr. Hussein wearing the chain-mail headdress of Saladin, the fabled 12th-century Moslem warrior. But on those busts, Mr. Hussein apparently wanted to display his modern-day glory as well. Even with that helmet, he is depicted wearing a 20th-century military uniform bedecked with so many medals that if he were not made of bronze he would be stoop shouldered.
Friezes on the monumental arches that lead to several of his palaces around the country show Mr. Hussein's view of his administration's place in history. They show a progression: Warriors in Nebuchadnezzar's army, 5th century B.C., riding chariots to a great battle; Saladin's forces on horseback, driving Christians from the Holy Land; followed by modern-day Iraqi soldiers fighting "Saddam's Moslem War," otherwise known as the Iran-Iraq war, launched by Mr. Hussein and battled to a bloody stalemate eight years later.
For all the hubris of its presence, the Hussein bust removed today was of rather shoddy construction, when seen close up. It is hollow, and the bronze is only about one-quarter of an inch thick. Thump it, and the monument gives off the ring of an empty fuel tank. What is more, the chest is a patchwork of mismatched bronze pieces, held together with sloppy welds. Hussein's nose, the size of a small car, was crusted with bird droppings.
All four busts are to be removed over the next two weeks. Charles Heatly, a spokesman for the occupation authorities, said the decision was made to remove them because, "actually they are illegal."
"According to the rules of de-Baathification they have to come down," Mr. Heatly said.
One of the busts will be ceremoniously destroyed "for the symbolic nature of it," Mr. Heatly said. It will be hacked up — not blasted with artillery fire, as some in the festive crowd today said they would prefer.
The three others are to be turned over to Iraqi authorities to dispose of as they choose. Kanan Makiya, the college professor and author, said he was hoping to acquire one for the museum he is creating called the Memory Foundation.
As workers fastened cables to the bust this afternoon, an Army major looked up and quipped, "It's one for the record books, huh?"
Up top, the construction company supervisor said, the workers were taking special pleasure from their work. Every time they cut free part of the steel superstructure, he said, they used it to smack the head a time or two before casting the beam aside. |
