Tearing Down a Middle East Dictator Statue – Chapter 2 : Michael Shaw

If these dramatic scenes from Deraa, Syria on Friday were reminiscent of anything here in the West, it was the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad’s Firdos Square. Except the Syrian’s, in dismantling dictator/President al-Assad’s dictator father, didn’t need a U.S. tank to do it.

Oh, and we Tumbl’d this.
(photos: Two cell phone photos and still frame from amateur video via Reuters. caption/s: Protesters gather near the site where the statue of late Syria President Hafez al-Assad was torn down in the southern Syrian city of Deraa, in this picture taken with a mobile phone March 25, 2011. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was facing the deepest crisis of his 11 years in power after security forces fired on protesters on Friday, adding to a death toll that rights groups have said now numbers in the dozens. Picture taken March 25, 2011. caption 3, first sentence,: This still image taken from amateur video posted on a social media website shows men removing the statue of late Syria President Hafez al-Assad in Deraa March 25, 2011.)