On the Capture of Saddam Hussein

by John Thompson

December 13, 2003

It was exhilarating to awake to the news that Saddam had been captured. The man is a monster who is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths — perhaps as many as a million people died because of him. A threat to the peace of the World is in custody, and will no doubt be called to account for his crimes.

Once he had dozens of palaces that contained every conceivable luxury, but he was pulled from the bottom of a spider hole in a ramshackle compound near his old hometown of Tikrit. The butcher of Baghdad came quietly — no fiery rhetoric or promises of apocalyptic battle. When cornered in Mosul last August, his sons had fought to their deaths; Saddam’s AK-47 and pistols remained unfired and he offered no resistance.

As the dictator of Iraq, Saddam was always ringed in by thousands of bodyguards and billions of dollars were spent to guarantee his security. His last two bodyguards sprinted off into the darkness as the Americans infantrymen closed in. All of Iraq lived in fear of him and his personal wealth was in the billions of dollars. Apparently in the last weeks before his capture, he had to pay cash to those who agreed to provide him with a hiding place, and his personal wealth has dwindled to 750,000 US dollars in a box.

As the leader of Iraq, he drove around in convoys of armoured limousines, while as many as five sets of identical decoy convoys drove off in random directions. Saddam has spent weeks driving back and forth in a battered orange and white taxicab. For decades, he projected an image of strength and vitality — concealing a limp in recent years, dying his hair, and having his servants maintain an impeccable standard of grooming. When pulled out of his hole yesterday, he had a long straggly gray beard and had not washed in several days.

So much for Saddam, what next?

What makes this capture all the more piquant is that events like this occur so rarely. The 20^th Century saw a lot of despots and dictators who killed a million people or more, or who launched wars of aggression against their neighbors. Few of them ever faced human justice. Stalin, Mao, and Lenin died in their beds, Hitler took his own life and left the Allies with the second prize of some of his lieutenants. Tito, Kim Il Sung, Ho Chi Minh and Pol Pot also died of old age, so did Chang Gaishek. Only some of the Japanese wartime leaders faced trial, and Mussolini literally faced mob justice.

On those too rare occasions when justice can be done, it is vital to administer it openly, fairly, and swiftly. For the Iraqis, as they form their new constitution and government, they have the added incentive of the prospect of trying their erstwhile tormentor. Iraq’s current governing council is already making preparations for public trials conducted by Iraqis themselves for some of Saddam’s henchmen. For Iraqis to try Saddam, it will have a cathartic effect and — if they try him fairly — will demonstrate the maturity and confidence of their new institutions.

The real challenge for the Iraqis is not to let their relief at being delivered from a fear that Saddam might return be turned to a lust for vengeance. It is human to want to destroy things that frightened us, but doing so diminishes us. If the Iraqis can demonstrate that they have overcome this instinct, they will show their true worth.

There may be arguments for an international trial for crimes against humanity; Iran, Israel and Kuwait can easily join America in seeking a trial at Den Hague. But, the punishments this court can administer seldom fit the crime, and it is the Iraqis themselves who have the greatest grievances and the greatest claims.

The capture also demonstrates the growing American abilities in intelligence gathering inside Iraq, and will free up resources used to hunt Saddam for other tasks. This is a clear sign to the insurgents that their lives are about to become much more interesting — and much shorter — unless they yield.

However, the guerrilla war that the Iraqis and the Coalition garrison face will continue and may even intensify for a few weeks as Saddam’s loyalists vent their disbelief and despair. Yet the fanatics of the Fedayeen Saddam will lose heart with the capture of their animus, and the remaining Baathist militias will recognize the pointlessness of continued opposition. The criminals that Saddam released and the Fundamentalists who entered Iraq to attack the Americans will no doubt continue the war; but its intensity can be expected to diminish.

John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism. He can be reached at: institute@mackenzieinstitute.com

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