Abstract

Saddam's Inglorious End

The author comments on the capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The enemies of a free Iraq have lost their leader" said George Bush following the capture of Saddam Hussein. To many people's eyes, the lone derelict crouching in a six-foot-deep "spider hole" hardly seemed the mastermind of the insurrection. Yes, his capture is good news for the Iraqi people. That said, Bush's incipient triumphalism seems an attempt to inflate the arrest of Saddam into a justification for his illegal war. Saddam's capture does nothing to justify the war, said Senator Robert Byrd in a speech. Bush used his press conference to announce his run for re-election and tout his "extraordinary year" of achievements. He got a temporary boost in popularity out of the capture, and his political strategists are already devising ways to put Democratic critics of the war on the defensive. At most, the former dictator was a rallying symbol for a restoration, but that prospect instilled dread in the hearts of most Iraqis, who had come to loathe him. Many Iraqis, Sunnis as well as Shiites, may actually feel emboldened to resist US troops now that Saddam has no chance of coming back. We hope that the trial of Saddam Hussein will be fairly conducted and enable Iraqis to purge their dark past.