Last week I was bombarded with images of Baghdad. The Iraqi people slapped Saddam’s stone cold likeness with slippers yanked from their feet. They threw a noose around his neck and attempted to rid Firdos Square of his image. They danced through the streets with the decapitated head of Saddam’s statue and the Iraqi people were liberated from a brutal dictator of 30 years.

But I remember something else, too. An image that haunts me through the short-lived cheers of the Iraqi people an image of colonialism: an American flag veiling the head of the later mutilated statue of Saddam was the knee jerk reaction of our troops when North Baghdad had been “liberated.” It was only a moment before the flag was removed and replaced with the Iraqi flag because this war was about the freedom of the Iraqi people… right?

Saddam is gone and now everything is as it should be. U.S. marines patrol the streets of the city, and looters run rampant. Gunfights break out between looters and citizens. Trucks are loaded with stolen goods adorned with white flags of surrender to protect themselves.

The Iraqi people have robbed themselves of their history, too,