Two days before the statue of Saddam was toppled at Firdos Square, Army troops who had seized control of the Republican Palace were ordered by their commander, Col. David Perkins, to find a statue of Saddam that could be destroyed. Once one was found–Saddam on horseback–the troops were told to wait until an embedded crew from Fox TV arrived. Click here to read an account of this from Jason Conroy, who wrote about it in his memoir, “Heavy Metal: A Tank Company’s Battle to Baghdad.” An amateur video of that toppling has been posted on youtube.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 1983, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I went to Brussels as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe. I left the Journal in 1985 to write for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, covering NATO and the European Union. In 1987 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, where I wrote primarily for The Washington Post. After three years in Asia I moved to Budapest to cover Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I spent most of 1992 and 1993 covering the war in Bosnia for the Post.
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