BAGHDAD, Iraq — Karim Abu Yasser was schooled in front of heroic portraits of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that hung in every classroom. First as a boy, then as a soldier for more than a decade in Hussein’s army, he was nurtured on tales of Hussein the Lion, and he accepted the official image of the president as a stalwart commander with nerves of steel.
So when he learned that Hussein had emerged meekly from his burrow last weekend and surrendered to U.S. forces without firing a shot, Abu Yasser said he was aghast.
"We feel he either should have fought or if he was surrounded and there was no other way, committed suicide. That’s what we were expecting," he said. "When he didn’t, it wasn’t a surprise for us. It was a shock."
Since Sunday, Baghdad has been buzzing with talk of Hussein’s surrender. Some Sunni Muslim supporters are suggesting that he did not fight because he was drugged by the CIA. Some detractors are wondering whether they could have ousted Hussein on their own.
A feeling that Hussein had shamed all Iraqis by failing to stand his ground was expressed by both supporters and opponents in a series of conversations here.
Abu Yasser, now a portly 40-year-old owner of a watch shop, said he was no fan of the fallen president. A member of Iraq’s long-repressed Shiite Muslim majority, he said the end of Hussein’s rule was welcome. But not this way.
"He was the head of state, the symbol of the country. It was his duty to fight," Abu Yasser said. "Frankly, he let us down."
Hassan Aboud, 35, a bookseller in downtown Baghdad, said, "We’re asking ourselves, Is this the man who ruled us for 35 years? This man was ruling us with an iron fist and he ends up in such a submissive way in a ditch."
He bitterly cited Hussein’s most recent audio tape, released to the media a month ago, urging his fighters to resist the U.S. occupation. "But he didn’t fight," Aboud said. "He is lies, lies to the end."
Aboud sells books from a wooden pallet along a crowded, colonnaded street named for Mutanabi, perhaps the Arab world’s greatest classical poet and, for many Iraqis, an exemplar of honor. Mutanabi embodies the valor that many now discover lacking in their former president.
The 10th-century poet was famed for his flowery panegyrics, praising the rulers of his time for their bravery and battlefield exploits, but he was also a blistering satirist. According to a tale familiar to many Iraqis, Mutanabi was waylaid during a journey south of Baghdad and was confronted by a tribal chieftain whose relatives he had ridiculed. Mutanabi turned to run. But his servant challenged him, asking Mutanabi how he could write of courage and then flee. Mutanabi returned to face the chieftain and was killed, along with his son.
Iraqis note with irony that Hussein chose to live even after his own two sons, Odai and Qusai, died battling U.S. soldiers. They were killed in July along with a bodyguard and Qusai’s 14-year-old son during a long, intense firefight that erupted when U.S. troops raided the house where they were hiding in the northern city of Mosul.
"We respect them," said Abu Yasser. "Even the little guy died fighting."
Amir Nayef Toma, standing in the shade of the portico along Mutanabi Street, said Hussein should have killed himself rather than be captured. "Iraqis were astonished and saddened," said Toma, 52, a former military radar mechanic who ran afoul of Hussein’s intelligence agents about 10 years ago when he tried to leave the service. "We didn’t know that Saddam had no pride in himself as a man."
Nowhere in Baghdad does sympathy for Hussein run as deep as in the overwhelmingly Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya in the north of the city. Graffiti on the walls proclaim "Long live Saddam" and facades of buildings are heavily pocked from gunfire, attesting to the resistance U.S. forces faced in this quarter. Residents remain skeptical of U.S. claims that Hussein succumbed without a struggle.
Khalid Haidar, 31, owns a modest grocery along the main commercial street where Hussein loyalists have staged protests over the past three days to demand his release. Haidar recalled that Hussein attacked Israel with Scud missiles during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and said he is sure Hussein would have confronted his U.S. pursuers if only given a chance.
"The CIA is all-powerful," said Haidar, dressed in a leather jacket, arms crossed, next to a large carton of Nestle’s chocolate bars. "We think they must have used some kind of nerve gas or drug on him. There’s no way he would go in this manner."
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