Historic moment in Iraq marked with street festival

So we went there looking for WMD’s.  Really?  Well what about this little tidbit?  Confidential memo reveals US plan to provoke an invasion of Iraq

“The memo, written on 31 January 2003, almost two months before the invasion and seen by the Observer, confirms that as the two men became increasingly aware UN inspectors would fail to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) they had to contemplate alternative scenarios that might trigger a second resolution legitimising military action.”

Iraqis welcomed the Tuesday deadline for American troops to leave their towns and cities with a street festival in Baghdad, though fears of renewed violence tempered celebrations of what their government called "National Sovereignty Day."

Newscasters on the state television network Al-Iraqiya draped Iraqi flags around their necks as an onscreen clock counted down to midnight Monday. Earlier Monday evening, hundreds of people danced and sang in a central Baghdad park to mark the U.S. pullout.

"I feel the same way as any Iraqi feels — I will feel my freedom and liberation when I don’t see an American stopping an Iraqi on the street," said Baghdad resident Awatef Jwad.

…In the past 10 days, a series of attacks — including numerous bombings that have targeted civilians — have killed more than 200 Iraqis. Monday, a car bombing in Mosul killed at least nine Iraqi police officers, and Iraq’s Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi urged people to avoid crowded public gatherings unless necessary.

But U.S. officials believe Iraq’s police and army can keep a lid on the violence, which Morell said was at the lowest point "in the history of this conflict."

U.S. troops rolled into Baghdad in April 2003, less than three weeks after launching the invasion that toppled then-dictator Saddam Hussein. Then-President George Bush said the invasion was necessary because Hussein’s government was concealing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and could have provided those weapons to terrorists.

Source/Full Story: CNN.com

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