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Iraqi spokesman Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf's lively press briefings claimed that Saddam was winning, but it was pretty easy to tell that his attempt to create a simulation of victory was not reality. "Baghdad is safe. The battle is still going on. Their infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad. Don't believe those liars," he told international camera crews on the roof of the Palestine Hotel. Behind him, viewers could see Iraqi troops fleeing from American tanks on the other side of the river. Al-Sahaf became something of a celebrity, nicknamed Comical Ali (a play on Chemical Ali, Saddam's intelligence chief Ali Hassan al-Majid, who had ordered the use of chemical weapons against the Kurds in the 1980s).
伊拉克发言人穆罕默德·赛义德·萨哈夫在生动的新闻发布会上宣称萨达姆即将获胜，但不难看出，他模拟胜利的企图是不现实的。“巴格达是安全的，战斗仍在继续，他们的异教徒正在巴格达的大门上自杀，不要相信那些骗子，”他在巴勒斯坦酒店的屋顶上对国际摄影师们说。在他身后，观众可以看到伊拉克军队正在河的另一边躲避美军的坦克。萨哈夫在某种程度上成了名人，绰号“滑稽的阿里”(“化学阿里”是萨达姆的情报主管阿里·哈桑·马吉德的绰号，他曾在20世纪80年代下令对库尔德人使用化学武器)。
Bringing down Saddam's statue was a greater feat of hyperreality. It would be presented to the world as a climax: the triumph of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The coalition forces were cast as liberators, allowing the Iraqi people to rise up at last and tear down the most powerful symbol of the dictator who had oppressed them. But the reality was not so simple.
推翻萨达姆的雕像是超现实主义的伟大壮举。它将作为高潮呈现给世界：伊拉克自由行动的胜利。联军被塑造为解放者，最终让伊拉克人民站起来，推翻了压迫他们的独裁者最强大的象征。但现实并非如此简单。
Since they had invaded Iraq on 20 March, coalition forces had been pulling down dozens of statues of Saddam. For example, on 29 March, British forces had blown up a cast-iron statue of him in Basra. "The purpose of that is psychological," said a military spokesperson, "to show the people … he does not wield influence, and we will strike at any representative token of that eroding influence". But no one filmed this event, so – while it was reported by the BBC and other news organisations – it made little impact outside Basra itself.
自3月20日入侵伊拉克以来，联军已经推倒了几十座萨达姆雕像。例如，3月29日，英军在巴士拉炸毁了他的一座铸铁雕像。一位军方发言人表示：“这样做的目的是心理上的，是为了向人民表明……他没有影响力，我们将打击任何有代表性的削弱影响力的象征。”但是没有人拍摄到这一事件，所以，尽管BBC和其他新闻机构报道了这一事件，但它在巴士拉以外几乎没有影响。
On 7 April, the day that the fall of Baghdad began, US soldiers seized the Republican Palace. Their commander ordered his troops to find a statue that could be destroyed, and to wait until Fox News arrived before they began to destroy it. Soon enough, they found an equestrian statue of Saddam. The television crew turned up, and the soldiers duly fired a shell. The footage was not exciting – just Americans destroying stuff, no crowd of grateful Iraqis – so it did not get much play. That same day, US Marines and Iraqi civilians brought down another Saddam statue in Karbala. The next day, British troops took out another one in Basra. There were so many statues of Saddam in Iraq that they were being felled on a daily basis.
4月7日，巴格达开始沦陷的那一天，美国士兵占领了共和宫。他们的指挥官命令他的部队去寻找一个可以被摧毁的雕像，并等到福克斯新闻到达后才开始摧毁它。很快，他们发现了萨达姆骑马的雕像。电视摄制组出现了，士兵们适时地发射了一枚炮弹。这段录像并不令人兴奋——只有美国人在破坏东西，没有感激涕零的伊拉克人——所以播放量并不高。同一天，美国海军陆战队和伊拉克平民推倒了卡尔巴拉的另一座萨达姆雕像。第二天，英军在巴士拉又推倒了一座。在伊拉克，每天都有很多萨达姆的雕像被推倒。
