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In central Baghdad's Firdos Square, cheering and chanting Iraqis danced atop a toppled statue of Saddam, dragged off its massive stone base by U.S. Marines in a tank recovery vehicle.

The Iraqis broke the statue into pieces and dragged its head through the streets, while others -- including children -- pounded it with shoes, an act considered a supreme insult in the Arab world.

"We thought we were going to get a lot of resistance, but we never did, so we just kept pushing and pushing until we got here," said Cpl. Steven Harris with the Marines in the square.

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In the Baghdad suburb of Saddam City, residents took to the streets, celebrating the apparent end of the Iraqi regime. A Shiite Muslim leader told a group of 400 to 500 people, "The tyrant of the world is finished, thanks to the coalition. Thank God for Iraq the victorious."

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Dozens of people were seen hauling off furniture, fixtures and office supplies, using wheelbarrows and pickups, with no security forces to stop them. Others ripped down posters of Saddam and destroyed them -- kicking, punching and spitting on the pictures.

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Residents in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil spilled out onto the streets as well in passionate but less-raucous demonstrations, waving flags, tossing confetti and chanting.

At a briefing Wednesday at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said coalition officials were somewhat concerned about the unrest but said they believe it will "settle down in due time."

"I think in this case we're seeing a lot of jubilation and people who have long been oppressed for years and years having choices," Brooks said.

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Two miles away from the celebration in Firdos Square, a Marine column moving into Baghdad from the east came under heavy fire Wednesday afternoon at Baghdad University.

CNN Correspondent Martin Savidge, embedded with the 1st Marines, 7th Battalion, said the university campus was a battlefield at one point, with black smoke rising from several buildings and machine-gun fire ripping around the fighting vehicles. (Full story)

The firefight erupted, Savidge said, suddenly after a long stretch of road where Iraqis gathered on street corners to cheer on the Marines.

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Originally posted by Saltah'na:
I'll only figuratively eat crow if and only if the Americans find hard proof of Weapons of mass destruction. Not traces, but perhaps barrels would be nice.

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Well, that's actually what I'm saying. Looking at the reactions from the Iraqi people themselves, I'm not so sure that the WMDs are as important.

Sure, the global political ramifications are still important -- it'd be a hell of an embarrassment if Bush and his gang can't prove that Saddam had those weapons -- but as far as moral and humanitarian considerations go, I think it's still worth it.

That's what some of the pro-war advocates have been saying all along -- that we should go in simply because it's the right thing to do, to get rid of a brutal dictator, WMDs or no. That's why I expect to see First drop by to gloat shortly.

(Note: My acknowledgement of the apparent necessity of the invasion is not intended to convey support for the politics of the Bush administration, nor for his conduct in the international arena. I'm simply acknowledging that I think now that it's a good thing that we have gone in.)

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“Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov
Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha

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And the anti-war advocates have been countering this by arguing that if getting rid of a brutal dictator were the motive for invasion, the US should be gearing up for worldwide conflict. Morally right, what a crock.

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