He used a sledgehammer to help bring down Saddam Hussein’s statue, but now wants him back

It is an image seared in the minds of war-ready and war-weary Americans alike. Just weeks after the invasion of Iraq, American armoured vehicles bore down on Firdos Square in downtown Baghdad, where an emboldened man had already taken a sledgehammer to the base of a statue of Saddam Hussein.

That man, Kadhim Sharif al-Jabouri, had once repaired the Hussein family’s motorcycles, but was also imprisoned by Saddam after falling out of favour. He says that 14 or 15 members of his family were executed by Saddam’s regime.

In an interview aired Tuesday by the BBC, more than 13 years after the invasion, Jabouri speaks of his longing for the relative peace of the years before it.

“Now, when I go by that statue, I feel pain and shame. I ask myself, why did I topple that statue?” said Jabouri. The toppling of the statue became the iconic image of the beginning of the invasion. It conveyed hope - though many have since alleged that the whole scene was more or less staged.

“I’d like to put it back up. To rebuild it. But I’m afraid I’d be killed,” said Jabouri.

Iraq is yet to fully emerge from the bloodbath the invasion precipitated. And on early Sunday morning, the Islamic State terrorised Baghdad once again with the deadliest single bombing since 2003, the year the invasion began. More than 200 were killed as they shopped in a mall for gifts for the upcoming Eid holiday, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.