Scenes of Dancing in the Streets of Baghdad

Why is everyone so overwhelmed and inspired by scenes of Iraqis dancing in the streets while heavily armed U.S. soldiers stand nearby, but no one was impressed a month ago when the same throngs danced in the streets with pictures of Saddam Hussein while his heavily armed soldiers stood nearby? Are the Iraqis really that happy to greet the conquering invaders, or have they been conditioned to dance for whoever’s soldiers hold the guns?

No doubt many Iraqi people will now live better lives, but many others who have lost arms, legs, eyes, houses or family members or are victimized by anarchy or foreign occupation will not. Now we can go on to “liberate” citizens in all the other dictatorships of the world. I hope no Republican will ever again complain about taxes as we bring freedom at “any price” to all oppressed peoples everywhere and provide for them the improved schools and roads and health care that we should have been providing for our own people.

Douglas Dunn

Oceanside

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We witnessed the fall of a statue in Baghdad that represented the fall of the dictatorial regime in Iraq. We also saw throngs of Iraqi men jumping up and down in a dance of freedom. When and how will we see the women of Iraq gain their freedom?

Ted Lepon

Los Angeles

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I am so grateful to be an American. Being a Korean American immigrant I am so grateful to be living in a country where freedom, security and the rule of law allow me and many other immigrants the chance to prosper and succeed. Working in downtown Los Angeles, I am in daily contact with Mexican, Iranian, Chinese, Vietnamese and other ethnic groups, and an underlying belief we all seem to share is how incredibly lucky we are to live in this great nation.

Many of us come from countries where we have faced firsthand the horrors and insecurity of regimes not so different from Hussein’s; watching the outpouring of relief and thanks from the Iraqi people is something we completely understand. The images on TV, however, must have been a shock to others, namely the antiwar protesters who were so certain they were demonstrating on behalf of the Iraqi people.

I’ve spoken to friends who have been imprisoned for having unpopular ideas, friends who have lived in perpetual fear and friends who understand that often there is no appealing to logic when dealing with evil men. There really is no place like America, and in no other nation are our founding ideals still relevant and believed by so many.

John Y. Oh

Pasadena

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I don’t mind that Hussein may be dead, I’m just not comfortable with my taxes funding an assassination.

Dan J. Curtis

Morro Bay

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From consul to emperor in defense of “the Senate and people of Rome”: The co-consuls, George W. Bush and Tony Blair, met again to plan how Hussein’s kingdom would be handled after the war (April 8). Meanwhile, the legions march relentlessly to enforce Pax Anglo-America throughout the known world. “Romans” can again relax in the relative safety of the homeland provinces of the republic.

Republics have a history of becoming empires. The parallels to the end of the Roman Republic and beginning of the Roman Empire are spooky. After all, Julius Caesar was elected by the people. Beware the Ides of March.

Christopher Williamson

Ventura