I never met an Iraqi who didn't have a dead relative because of Saddam Hussein. From Adil, my civilian colleague in London, who had a brother gunned down in the street by the Republican Guard, to the scores of Iraqis I met in their cities and towns, everyone was closely related to at least one of Saddam's victims. Many parents were missing two, three, four children because of the tyrant. It was as if a plague like the Black Death had visited the country, striking down men at random.
That explains the visceral reaction that the Iraqi journalists showed during the press conference announcing Saddam's capture. When they showed him undergoing a medical examination, they started yelling and screaming at the television, as if he were in the room with them. (Maybe the Western journalists can lecture them privately about how the press is supposed to live in a world beyond good and evil.) It was gratifying, to me at least, seeing him treated like a common criminal on his way to arraignment.
Whatever you might think of the Iraqi war, you would have to be spiritually blind not to be happy for the Iraqi people on this day. They will have the opportunity to put their tormentor on trial for his monstrous, scarcely believable crimes. Today, let's pray that the Iraqi citizens get the quiet, normal existence that they deserve.
This is truly a great day for the Iraqi people, as well as our troops on the ground in Iraq. The fact that he was taken alive without a shot being fired so that he can face the justice system and be held accountable for his crimes is surely a direct intervention by God.
Chris,
Amen to that.
That's what I like the most about it: the whole operation was apparently cold, methodical, and professional.
I pray that Hussein's capture will be a catalyst for peace and stability and not for murder and revenge.
I'm sure our troops (both First Gulf War and those who fought in this Second Gulf War) are elated by this news. It must be a great morale booster for them.
I wish that there would not be any "vengeance killings" as a result of the capture, but another car bomb just went off.
My thanks goes to each and every American soldier -- whether an operative or a toilet scrubber -- for doing what they do. May their tasks always be for the sake of good.
I agree with Fr. O'Neal. May God bless and protect our troops and the Iraqi people and bring lasting peace to those people who have suffered so much .
Thank God that Sadam Hussein was captured peacefully; may there be no further violence.