Dictator’s Fall: The World Weighs In

Saddam Hussein was a towering tyrant who became a man without a shadow, ungroomed and uncouth, prodded by the anonymous, methodical hand of American military might. In these excerpts from editorial pages around the world in the days after Hussein’s capture, commentators remember his reign and speculate on Iraq’s future.

-- Compiled by Michael Soller

IRAQ

Justice has caught the bloodsucker, the despot who has humiliated his people and relatives.... The cries of the honest people in Iraq and the entire world were heard calling for freedom for the patient Iraqis, the people of goodness and the people of history and the people of knowledge which has shone over the world.... This is the clearest and most beautiful morning in my country, Mesopotamia. Be joyful, oh my brothers, be joyful, oh my brothers, for this is great news for Iraq.

-- Al-’Ahd Al-Jadid (by Abd Al-Bassit Al-Naqqash)

FRANCE

The man who was found hiding in a village in the region of Tikrit is one of the greatest criminals of the day. He brought unhappiness to the Iraqis and neighboring peoples; he humiliated the Arab world in putting a criminal mafia in charge of a country that could very well have become one of the engines of modernity in the region: because of oil, of course, but also because of its educated population and the rich heritage of the ancient land of Mesopotamia.

- LE MONDE

NEW ZEALAND

This time there was no repeat of the victory declaration delivered aboard an American aircraft carrier. President George W. Bush’s short speech from the White House Cabinet room after American troops seized Saddam Hussein was far more circumspect -- and far more appropriate....

Mr. Bush’s cautious response to Saddam’s capture indicates that the Americans have acquired some measure of wisdom. They recognize it is no panacea for their many problems in Iraq. It is to be hoped they also understand the huge benefits if the curtain is brought down appropriately on this most brutal of tyrants.

- THE NEW ZEALAND-HERALD

SPAIN

In the last three decades, Saddam Hussein has been a cruel tyrant to the people of Iraq and a constant threat to neighboring countries, although the United States appears not to have discovered that until August 1990, when Saddam invaded Kuwait.... With the arrest of Saddam, the world could be better off if some conditions are met. First, if the U.S. and other democratic countries never again lend support to tyrants like this to fulfill their immediate needs.... Another is to give him a fair, transparent trial and appropriate legal guarantees for his defense. The joy over Saddam’s capture should not translate into an expedited trial that ends in a summary execution.

- EL PAIS

GERMANY

His life was a battle, and he lost his last battle. Saddam Hussein’s capture near his hometown, Tikrit, ended an almost unequaled rogue career. This is an enormously important success for the United States, a victory for President George Bush on two fronts: in Iraq and at home. But there is more: a reason for joy that can finally be shared by the whole world, which was split by the Iraq war. The U.S., its allies, the war’s opponents, and especially the people in Iraq oppressed by Saddam’s dictatorship, are united. This day in Tikrit is triumphant only if a new beginning follows the end of this horror....

Only if the U.S. government recognizes that it must use its second chance for reconciliation will the capture of Saddam Hussein become more than an act of cheap gratification....They have Saddam, now they must restore the electricity.

- SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG (BY PETER MUENCH)

IRAN

The American attacks on Iraq and the arrest of Saddam by the American troops must not lead us astray. We consider America our enemy. America must allow the Iraqis to decide the fate of their country. With the arrest of Saddam and his trial, America has no excuse to stay in Iraq.

- KHORASAN

LEBANON

It was a fitting end for a tyrant: a hero against his people, helpless in the face of the foreign occupation. But this was an end that opened the door to the Iraq of tomorrow, different from the past of the tyrant and the present of the American occupation.

- AL SAFIR (BY TALAL SALMAN)

PALESTINIAN

TERRITORIES

This sight [of the arrest of] Saddam Hussein ... will remain among the painful sights of history that attest to the humiliation and atrophy to which the Arab nation has sunk as a result of the disagreements, [internal] struggles, and pursuit of [private] interests....

The saddest and most disgraceful thing in all things concerning Saddam Hussein and his regime is that toppling the regime and arresting its head was carried out by the occupation forces. Had this operation been carried out by the Iraqis, it would not have caused such a flurry of emotions. Thus, every [incident] of resistance in Iraq will constitute a natural response to the desecration of Iraqi sovereignty.

- AL-QUDS

BRITAIN

It is correct, for the first time, to talk of Saddam in the past tense. Until [his capture], his shadow, as a carefully ungloating Tony Blair said, had hung over postwar Iraq. Saddam was the ghost at the occupiers’ feast, a dangerous symbol and rallying point in an unfinished war, a warning and a caution to the Iraqi majority that wanted a new start for their country but wondered whether it was safe to begin.... Saddam, happily, now has no say over Iraq’s future. But he has an awful lot to say about its past. It is vital that the world hear his full, unexpurgated testimony. Saddam was a horror of our age. But the guilt for his deeds is not entirely his alone.

- THE GUARDIAN

The master of the bullets was parsimonious on one bullet to his temple -- despite his great generosity in all things regarding bullets for others.

- AL-HAYAT (BY GHASSAN CHARBAL)

Saddam turned Baghdad from a primitive village into one of the most important capitals in the Arab homeland. Likewise, he established many universities, and a powerful army with which he defended his country.... Describing Saddam as a dictator requires another examination. Every people deserves the leader it gets.

- AL-SHARQ AL-AWSAT (BY SAYED NASSAR)

Rarely do the monsters of history have to account for their crimes.... Not since Eichmann faced a court in Jerusalem has a mass murderer on the scale of Saddam Hussein been captured alive and put on trial. The importance of this cannot be overestimated.... The man who dreamt of being a second Saladin, a hero to the Arabs and a champion of the Muslims, was captured without heroics -- dirty, bedraggled, cowering and submissive.

- THE TIMES

EGYPT

The sight of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein at the time of his arrest ... is painful and shocking. No Arab would wish this upon the Arab president of Iraq, one of the most important Arab countries.... Many Iraqis hoped that his rule would be ended by the Iraqis, but Saddam rejected all calls to him by the Arab forces, primarily by Egypt, to prevent the danger lying in wait for Iraq and the Arabs. He entered into an ill-thought-out conflict with the international forces that seek to rule the world.... Now he must be tried in an Iraqi court, not an American court.

- AL-AHRAM (BY IBRAHIM NAFI’)

RUSSIA

The capture of Saddam Hussein is the first real success for the U.S. since the start of the global “war on terror.” The men behind Sept. 11 -- Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar -- have still not been found. Even sadder is that Saddam’s role in international terrorism has still not been proved by Washington.

The arrest, trial and execution of the dictator will be a great PR event for Mr. Bush before next year’s presidential election.... However, even American power cannot prevent further problems in Iraq.

- KOMMERSANT

KUWAIT

We say this to the Americans: “Don’t kill Saddam. Let him live.” This call is not motivated by any misplaced kindness towards Saddam, who doesn’t deserve any such feelings. It is based on the strategy adopted by the U.S. in Iraq to bring under control similar regimes in the Middle East.

Saddam is the showpiece of corruption, and his end will awaken the Arabs and make them see the real truth behind the patriotic slogans raised by this type of leader. It will also help the Arab people realize they will be naive if they choose to follow such leaders.

- ARAB TIMES (BY AHMAD AL-JARALLAH)

*

Translations by Sergio Munoz, Peter Park, Sierra Van Borst, Mark Porubcansky, BBC Monitoring, and the Middle East Media Research Institute