Wednesday, April 09, 2003

This huge, muscular Iraqi is taking a sledgehammer to the base of the statue; won't do too much good, I'm afraid, but I'm sure it makes him feel a lot better. They've got a big thick rope around the statue's neck, but I don't think that'll be enough, since this statue is like fifty feet high and made of steel and concrete. If they're smart they'll get a chain, use the rope to pull it up, and then hitch it to the back of a tank. The two high-rise hotels where the journalists are staying, the Sheraton and the Palestine, have been occupied by the Marines.

The disgraceful Spanish episode of the day is that a Spanish cameraman was killed yesterday when an American tank fired on the Palestine Hotel, and the Spanish correspondents claim to have berated the marines as they came into the center of the city for having killed their friend. It's hard to criticize them--their friend was killed, after all, and they must be very sad--but, guys, this is a war zone. Also, wouldn't it have seemed just a little inappropriate to have reminded the Allies as they liberated Paris that they were scum because a journalist had been killed?

No comments: