Iraqi’s question Hussein’s actions

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Saddam Hussein should have put up a fight or committed suicide, some Iraqis said Sunday after watching images of their fallen leader, haggard and humiliated, in American custody.

As news of his capture spread across the country, celebratory shooting erupted in Baghdad’s streets, soldiers cheered and victims of his tyranny thanked the United States. Many said it marked a new beginning for Iraq.

But for some, his capture was a blow to hopes for Hussein’s triumphant return, and his peaceful surrender was seen as a stain on Arab honor.

“He swore before the war that Iraqis would fight America, and then he didn’t fire a single shot,” said Kassem Shelshul, a 28-year-old chauffeur living in Baghdad. “We expected him to commit suicide or resist,” he said after watching video of the captured dictator.

“For the last 35 years Saddam Hussein presented himself as a lion against the Americans and the West and now today they found him like a mouse,” said Laad Hamadi, an Iraqi civil engineer. “He didn’t fight for his country, he didn’t even fight for himself.”

Some called Hussein a coward for getting caught. Others were glad he didn’t die a martyr.

“He killed my son Mohammed and he tortured his people,” 40-year-old Halem al-Jassen said as she celebrated in the street. “Thank God for the United States.”

In the Kurdish city of Kirkuk in the north, eight people were killed and 80 wounded from gunfire during celebrations of Hussein’s capture.

But for Hussein’s supporters, the day was one of loss.

Safa al-Douri, a 36-year-old grocery store owner in Adwar, the town where Hussein was captured late Saturday, said it was too painful to watch the video.

“I could not stand looking at him. When I heard the news of his arrest it was as though somebody told me my father had died,” he said. “But when I saw his face, it was even worse.”

In Baghdad, in the neighborhood of Adhamiya, there was anger and sadness. About 200 young men whose faces were hidden by red-and-white scarves gathered in front of the mosque where the dictator was last seen before U.S. troops swarmed the city and chanted, “We will never give up Iraq and Saddam Hussein.”

They marched down the streets of the neighborhood firing guns into the air as they mourned the loss of their leader.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, members of the Iraqi Communist Party, which was banned and persecuted under Hussein’s rule, were jubilant, passing around bags of candy and raising red flags outside party headquarters.

Shiite clerics offered sweets to worshippers who attended afternoon prayers; residents of the capital burned old currency emblazoned with Hussein’s photograph, radio stations played festive music and bus passengers cheered: “They got Saddam, they got Saddam.”