“IT WAS LIKE THE LIBERATION OF PARIS:”

AJAF, Iraq — An enthusiastic welcome for US forces in Najaf turned jubilant yesterday, as several thousand Iraqis braved sporadic firefights for what one special forces officer described as ”the Macy’s Day parade,” applauding a US patrol that pushed close to a religious shrine at the center of the city. . . .

In the midst of the fighting, a US patrol approached Ali’s tomb, attempting to contact local clerics, but were met instead by a crowd. Lieutenant Colonel Chris Hughes, a battalion commander in the First Brigade, said: ”We waited about an hour and a half, and the hair on the back of my neck began to stand up. The crowd got bigger and bigger, so we pulled back out. But it was like the liberation of Paris.”

I wonder if it has anything to do with the pro-US fatwa mentioned below.

Jay Fitzgerald, who sent the link, wonders if they’ll be showing these scenes — and making that comparison — in Quebec and France.