Following the seizure of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein eight days ago, some riveting discussions took place among politicians and pundits of all stripes about how such a catch should be treated -- not just in the coming weeks and months, but from the first minutes of the deposed leader's detention.

It turned out that, while no one outside of a few relatives and diehard loyalists in Iraq was sorry to see the tyrant caught, there was no such agreement about how his U.S. captors should behave, and there probably won't be one in the future. The debate is by no means a trivial one, since much more is at stake than vengeance, or even justice. Also on the line is democracy's image in the region.

Take the photographs and videotapes of Hussein on the day of his capture -- already iconic -- being swabbed for DNA samples and examined for head lice by a latex-gloved doctor. The former dictator, a palace-dwelling billionaire, was the picture of bedraggled abjectness: mouth forced open, eyes staring glassily. One immediately felt the man's utter humiliation. The image triggered a fascinating duality of responses, both in Iraq and abroad.