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Category: Documents

The Literature of 3/4

The Literature of 3/4

There are a number of books about 3/4, the Third Battalion Fourth Marines, which toppled the statue at Firdos Square. John Koopman, who was an embedded reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle, wrote McCoy’s ...  (Read more)

Author Peter MaassPosted on January 19, 2011January 9, 2021Categories Documents, McCoy, The Toppling

The Strategic Corporal at Firdos Square

If Leon Lambert, a 35-year old gunnery sergeant, hadn’t been at Firdos Square, the statue of Saddam Hussein probably wouldn’t have been toppled on April 9. It was Lambert who gave a sledgehammer and rope to a handful of Iraqis at the square, thereby triggering the process that led to the ...  (Read more)

Author Peter MaassPosted on January 15, 2011November 29, 2020Categories Documents, The Toppling

The Map to the Palestine Hotel

The Map to the Palestine Hotel

The Marines who were dispatched to the Palestine Hotel were given a grid coordinate for an area that was a square kilometer large but they did not know where the hotel was located in that area; the hotel was not marked on the map they used. The map is posted above. The red circle, which I placed on ...  (Read more)

Author Peter MaassPosted on January 14, 2011January 9, 2021Categories Documents, Palestine Hotel, The Toppling

Shelling the Palestine Hotel

On April 8, the day before Marines arrived at Firdos Square, an Army tank on the Al Jumhuriya Bridge fired a shell at the Palestine Hotel, killing two journalists and injuring three others. Those killings increased pressure on the Pentagon to secure the hotel, so that no further harm would come to ...  (Read more)

Author Peter MaassPosted on January 12, 2011November 29, 2020Categories Documents, Palestine Hotel, The Toppling

Inside the Palestine Hotel, 2

Inside the Palestine Hotel, 2

On the fifth anniversary of the invasion, New York Times reporter John Burns wrote about the precarious status of journalists at the Palestine Hotel, and how he felt when Marines arrived at Firdos Square.

Author Peter MaassPosted on January 8, 2011January 9, 2021Categories Documents, Palestine Hotel, The Toppling

The Psychological Operations Myth

In 2004 the Army published a report that credited a psychological operations team with playing a crucial role at Firdos Square. A  ...  (Read more)

Author Peter MaassPosted on January 6, 2011November 29, 2020Categories Documents, The Toppling

The Map for Invading Baghdad

The Map for Invading Baghdad


The final assault into central Baghdad was planned in a surprisingly ad-hoc manner. I had thought it would have been prepared in depth, with lots of intelligence and surveillance on hand, but instead it was devised on the outskirts of Baghdad, at the Diyala canal, by two majors, John Schaar and ...  (Read more)

Author Peter MaassPosted on January 4, 2011January 9, 2021Categories Documents, Photos, The Toppling

Academic Studies of the Firdos Toppling

Academic Studies of the Firdos Toppling

There are a number of interesting media studies about the toppling at Firdos Square. The best was done by a George Washington University team led by professor Sean Aday; entitled “As Goes the Statue, So Goes the War: The Emergence of the Victory Frame in Television Coverage of the Iraq War,” ...  (Read more)

Author Peter MaassPosted on January 4, 2011January 9, 2021Categories Documents, The Toppling

My Other Stories About the Third Battalion

The military unit that toppled the statue of Saddam Hussein at Firdos Square was the Third Battalion Fourth Marines, based at Twentynine Palms, California and led by Lt. Col. Bryan McCoy (who is now a full colonel, based in Tampa with Central Command). During the invasion I was what the military called ...  (Read more)

Author Peter MaassPosted on January 4, 2011November 29, 2020Categories Documents, McCoy, The Toppling

The Passion of Command

The Passion of Command

Col. Bryan McCoy, who commanded the battalion that toppled the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, has written a fine book about military leadership. It’s called Passion of Command: The Moral Imperative of Leadership, and it has a lot of admirers in the military community.

Author Peter MaassPosted on January 4, 2011January 9, 2021Categories Documents, McCoy, The Toppling

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  • Love Thy Neighbor
    • About the Book
    • Order the Book
    • Excerpt One: The Journey Begins
    • Excerpt Two: A Checkpoint Arrest
    • Excerpt Three: Visiting the Camps
  • Crude World
    • About the Book
    • Order the Book
    • Q&A with Peter Maass
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    • Reporting the Invasion of Iraq (Twitter)
    • Peter Handke (Twitter)
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