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Article: Ozymandias redux. (Editor's Note).
- Article from:
- Reason
- Article date:
- June 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Reason Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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I'M WRITING THIS as U.S.--excuse me, coalition--troops are rolling into Baghdad virtually unopposed. As statues of Saddam Hussein are pulled to the ground all over Iraq, it's tough not to think of Shelley's "Ozymandias of Egypt," in which a "traveller" recounts stumbling across a half-buried monument to a long-forgotten tyrant:
And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty and despair!" Nothing beside remains: round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch faraway.
As of press time, it's clear that it's a new day in Iraq, one in which Saddam and ...