The collapse of the regime of Saddam Hussein occupied virtually all the front pages of the main European papers on 10 April, albeit with different nuances and comments. “Baghdad has fallen” (Le Figaro), “The fall of the Iraqi regime” (Le Monde), “The fall” (Liberation): that’s how the French dailies headlined the end of the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and the entry of American troops into the centre of the Iraqi capital. In the view of Le Figaro “America has won and can feel itself heartened in its unilateralism thanks to the victory in Iraq” even though the project of Bush for the Middle East remains “full of risks and uncertainties”. “A victory that does not remove all the doubts”, writes Liberation which awaits the discovery of “the arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, invoked to justify the conflict”. To the fall of Baghdad Le Monde dedicates its front page story and extensive news coverage, but the victory does not prevent the paper from also devoting an editorial to the issue of “The press and the war” in which it reconstructs the phases of the attack of the American tank against the Hotel Palestine which caused the death and injury of several journalists. “The shelling of the Hotel Palestine bears witness to the American tactic in Baghdad: a storm of fire against a minimum threat or against those who are perceived as a threat. Air bombardments and tank fire at the heart of the city. Maximum force in response to the minimum perceived danger, and so much the worse for the civilians”. “Victory in the 21-day war” is the front-page headline in The Times, the London daily that dedicates almost half of its front page to the photo of the toppling of the statue of Saddam from its plinth by the American army amid the jubilation of the Iraqi crowds. “Saddam defeated” is the headline carried by various other British dailies, including The Independent. Different in tenor is the front page of the Herald Tribune: “Applause and looting Saddam’s regime falls” summing up the scenes that greeted the arrival of US troops in downtown Baghdad. Like the French Liberation, the American daily too poses the question of Saddam’s non-conventional weapons: “Once the allies have full control of Iraq, urgent and neutral investigations will be needed to resolve this mystery. News from the war front almost every day reports the existence of possible chemical weapons but the proofs are slight: gas masks, overalls as a defence against chemical attacks…”. Given the enormous quantities of Iraqi chemical agents cited by the American administration, “it ought to be possible to find them with the help of scientists and army officers”. “ But for the proofs to be credible concludes the comment the presence of neutral analysts, such as the Swiss and the Finns, leaders in this type of laboratory analysis, is essential”.
