His hands were bleeding and his eyes filled with tears as, four years ago, he slammed a sledgehammer into the tiled plinth that held a 20ft bronze statue of Saddam Hussein.The moment became symbolic across the world as it signalled the fall of the dictator. Now, on the fourth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, Kadhim al-Jubouri says: "I really regret bringing down the statue. The Americans are worse than the dictatorship. Every day is worse than the previous day."
The weightlifter had also been a mechanic and had felt the full weight of Saddam's regime when he was sent to Abu Ghraib prison by the Iraqi leader's son, Uday, after complaining that he had not been paid for fixing his motorcycle.
Yet he now says he would prefer to be living under Saddam than under US occupation. He said: "The devil you know [is] better than the devil you don't. We no longer know friend from foe. The situation is becoming more dangerous. It's not getting better at all. People are poor and the prices are going higher and higher."
According to an opinion poll of 5,000 Iraqis carried out over the past month, 26% say life was better under Saddam. More than one in four said they had had a close relative murdered in the past three years.
[Excerpt of an article by Audrey Gillan, The Guardian]
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