I Do Not Clap for Hussein's Capture
by Bob Witanek
December 14, 2003

I do not celebrate and am not glad that Saddam Hussein has been captured. I would not celebrate anything at all about the conquest of a nation by US invasion - occupiers. The pulling of the burly faced Saddam from a hole near his home town is another humiliation for Iraqis. I oppose the US presence in Iraq completely and unconditionally and every aspect of the counter insurgency war there - the surrounding of towns with barbed wire posted with signs that say "keep away or you will be shot," the conversion of much of the nation into a free fire zone, the rounding up and imprisonment of tens of thousands of Iraqis without any due process, the day to day murder by US occupation troops of Iraqis - be they civilians or legitimate resisters, the day to day humiliation of all Iraqis, the fomenting and organization of civil war by occupation authorities, etc.

This is not being said out of any degree of sympathy for Saddam Hussein - it is just plain wrong for an anti-war movement to celebrate and congratulate imperialist conquest or any result of the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Regardless of the crimes of Hussein and his regime - it is illegal and immoral for the US to supercede international law and to snatch leaders from other countries and overthrow their regimes.

An area peace activist recently wrote in his comments about the capture: "I am also glad that his fate will be decided by an Iraqi court in compliance with the rule of law." I answer to that, what rule of law? The occupation authority ceded its sham authority temporarily to the handpicked IGC to allow it to convene the court. Is that the rule of law an anti-war movement should support? This rule of law is the rule of predation - the stronger conquering rapacious eagle devouring its weaker opponent.

The courts that will try Hussein in Iraq will certainly not allow a full airing of all the evidence including the evidence of USA complicity with his regime. He will be put on trial for "gassing the Kurds" and the Iranians - will Reagan officials be named as accomplices for their support of those endeavors?

I look forward to the day when sanctions mass murder Clinton is pulled from a hole all burly faced and brought to justice - when Colin Powell is yanked from his hideaway for his role in the "highway of death" massacre of 50,000 Iraqi soldiers as they exited from Kuwait or even for incinerating Panamanians in their shanty towns - and what about Bush, Cheney, Bremer and their democratic party accomplices who have been saying "me too!" every step of the way?

One thing good about the capture is that now it will end US and media speculation about whether capturing him will dampen the spirits of the Iraqi resistance fighters. It indeed could prove to be a double edged sword where now the recruitment into their ranks can go forward without the taint of "Saddam loyalists." It remains to be seen what effect the Hussein capture will have on the war for national liberation in Iraq against counter insurgency war of the armed forces of the US and its 35 allied nations - the coalition of the killing.

I shed no tear for Saddam Hussein - but I do not clap for success of invader, occupier, thief of a nation and humiliator of a people in its continued trampling of Iraq.

I will be very glad when the US is forced to make its exit from Iraq - the only way we can contribute toward that end is by demanding the complete, immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the military forces of the US and its allies.