December 15, 2003

Congratulations, Safaa

I have at various times in the past two years showed you this photo, by Tennessean staff photographer P. Casey Daley, showing little Safaa Albadran, 4, outside the Nashville Convention Center under a banner held by her father Karim, an Iraqi immigrant who opposes Saddam Hussein’s government, left, proclaiming Saddam: Out - Democracy In.

The photo was taken more than a year ago, when President Bush was in town for a political fundraiser. Also outside the convention center that day: About 300 anti-war protestors, many in need of shower, deodorant and haircut, holding signs calling Bush a terrorist because he favored the removal from power of a mass murderer who would have ordered Safaa and her father killed and buried in a mass grave if they'd held that sign up outside the Baghdad Convention Center.

I would dearly love to know what Safaa's father is thinking today, to feel the joy he must feel now that Saddam indeed is out, and Democracy indeed is on its way in. And I would love to know if Safaa understands that the flag she clutched that day is the flag under which her home country was liberated, so that no more little girls like her will be executed and buried in mass graves because their mommy or daddy criticized the tyrant.

Congratulations Safaa and Karim.