With these words, Iraq's U.S. administrator Paul Bremer announced on Sunday that American military forces had captured former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. His arrest symbolizes the end of an era in Iraq. It also could break the back of a resistance that has stymied efforts to bring peace and stability to that country. That is not guaranteed, however. Building stability and an enduring peace in Iraq will require broad-based support and reconstruction aid from the international community.
U.S. forces, pursuing a tip indicating that the ex-president was in the vicinity of Tikrit, discovered him in an underground hideout, bearded, disheveled, armed with a pistol and holding some $750,000 in cash. He reportedly surrendered without a fight and is said to be cooperating with his captors. The U.S. command has said it will continue to hold and question Hussein at an undisclosed location.
Hussein's arrest is an important victory. He was a tyrant who killed hundreds of thousands of his own people. He waged war against two of Iraq's neighbors, invading one in a move that united the international community against Iraq over a decade ago. There was another constant throughout his reign: He let the Iraqi people bear the brunt of his mistakes. In the aftermath of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Hussein chose to let his people suffer and starve under an international sanctions regime rather than cooperate in accordance with the peace agreements that he had signed. He built lavish palaces and then declared them exempt from the purview of the United Nations, both depriving the Iraqi people of funds that could have been used for food and medicine, and ensuring through his defiance that the sanctions that made their lives miserable would continue.