EDITORIAL - Fall of a tyrant

This is the way a tyrant falls: trapped in a hole in the ground, wearing a false beard, hair unkempt, unable to put up even token resistance. Those who admired Saddam Hussein for standing up to the Americans for many years were reportedly aghast that he allowed himself to be captured by the forces responsible for the deaths of his sons and the collapse of his regime. Tyrants, however, are often cowards, bullying only those who can’t fight back, concerned only about their own survival.

Saddam Hussein proved to be no different. The man who ruled Iraq with an iron hand for a generation tried to maintain some dignity befitting a former president – an impossible task when one is videotaped being poked and examined for dental cavities, looking like a straggler from World War II.

And yet even in his public humiliation, the sight of Saddam clearly stirred powerful emotions among the people he had oppressed for two de-cades. Iraqi journalists watching his video images started shouting and demanding his death. Men and women wept in the streets of Iraq, probably recalling unspeakable horrors perpetrated by Saddam’s regime. Eight months after his mammoth statue came tumbling down in the heart of Baghdad, the streets of the Iraqi capital were once again filled with celebration.

American officials and the US-backed Iraqi Governing Council have been quick to point out that they do not expect Saddam’s fall to spell the end of attacks on occupation forces of the coalition. Saddam’s capture also cannot gloss over the fact that the coalition has failed to find weapons of mass destruction – the casus belli for the attack on Iraq.

For now, however, the free world can only rejoice over the capture of one of the world’s worst despots. Saddam turned Iraq into a private playground for himself and his equally abusive sons. Now the sons are gone and Saddam faces trial for crimes against humanity. It’s a moment to savor amid the continuing chaos in Iraq.