For a man whose English is not all that great, the new Iraqi Interior Minister came up with a great phrase to describe the capture of Saddam Hussein this morning: "Freedom up, Saddam down!" The news that Saddam had been captured by Coalition forces had Iraqis literally dancing in the streets.

At the news conference in which Ambassador Paul Bremer announced, "We got him!" Iraqi journalists cheered and shouted "Death to Saddam!!" Yes, journalists are supposed to be objective about news events. But journalists are people, too, and these Iraqi journalists, along with their friends and families, had suffered greatly under Saddam. We can cut them some slack in the objectivity department.

Saddam will be 67 next April. Judging from the reaction of these journalists and the people on the streets, it is unlikely that he will live to see his 68th birthday. It will take some time for the newly formed Iraqi War Crimes Tribunal to get up and running. But when they do, one of their first customers will be former dictator and mass murderer Saddam Hussein.


The Coalition foolishly banned the death penalty when it set up the provisional government in Iraq. But key members of the Iraqi government have been calling for it to be reinstated recently. Expect that movement to escalate now that the man who personally ordered the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis has been captured.

Interestingly, even though he was armed, Saddam gave up without a fight. Before we invaded Iraq, Hussein ordered his people to "fight to the death" and to "never give up." So there had been much speculation that he would fight to the end, and might even kill himself rather than be captured. The fact that he did undoubtedly has government officials in Russia, Germany and France very worried. 

Imagine the interesting things that will come to light when Saddam is interrogated. We will discover the full extent to which these countries were actual allies of Saddam. They have tried to portray the relationships of their countries with Saddam's Iraq as simply businesses from their nations independently doing legitimate business with Iraq. In those cases where the business done was patently illegal, these nations have attempted to put the onus on the businesses involved, with the governments claiming ignorance.

I believe the exact opposite will prove to be the case. I believe the governments and intelligence agencies of Russia, Germany and France were fully aware and fully involved in the illegal arming of Saddam Hussein's brutal dictatorship. They supplied him with the materials and parts to make illegal chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and in some cases supplied the weapons themselves.

Why else did they fight so hard to keep Saddam in power? Why did they attempt to block every action of the U.N. to force Iraq to comply with resolution after resolution stretching over a decade? Simply because they did not want the world to hear what Saddam has to say, because it will make them pariahs in the civilized world. My only hope is that the Coalition will not keep their crimes secret. There will be many voices arguing that exposing these thug nations would be bad for "world harmony." I hope that harmony takes second place to truth. The world needs to know just how deeply allied these rogue nations were with the man who will go down in history as one of the most brutal mass murderers of our century.

It amazes me that these nations would dare to do so, but instead of hanging their heads in shame, they have been complaining vocally about not being allowed to bid on the Iraq reconstruction contracts. The Prime Minister of Russia whined, "We want to help rebuild Iraq, too." No, Mr. Prime Minister, you don't want to "help" anyone. You want the profits from the contracts. 

There are two very good reasons why Saddam's Three Stooges should not be allowed to bid on these contracts. The first is fairness. They did nothing to help free Iraq. Thirty nations participated in the liberation of Iraq. Not one Russian, German or Frenchman lost his life, and not one ruble, mark or franc was spent on any phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Second is common sense. It's our money, and we can spend it any way we wish. There have been small monetary contributions from a handful of nations, but essentially the US is picking up the tab for the rebuilding of Iraq. Why should we allow the Three Stooges to profit from American dollars when their actions made it much more difficult for us to free Iraq, and probably cost additional American lives? Let them go peddle their wares to other terrorist nations, since that seems to be their specialty.

This article would not be complete without a mention of how our forces found Saddam. Tips from Iraqi citizens led us to his hiding place. Regardless of how the leftist media tries to play up isolated anti-US protests, the fact is that the majority of Iraqis are glad we came, and they want us to stay until things are stabilized. The fact that they turned in Saddam shows where their loyalties lie.

This is a great day for President Bush, America, the Coalition, and the civilized nations of this world. It is a very bad day for Saddam Hussein, Russia, Germany France, and wannabe dictators everywhere. So be it.

Tom Barrett

Conservative Truth.org