Word: saddamism
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...Saddam?s capture, in short, opens a new chapter in the history of Iraq, and its relations with the United States. But it remains a complicated and sharply contentious chapter, even if removing Saddam himself as a factor allows all the contending forces to redefine themselves and their objectives...
...Saddam, of course is not dead - the immediate future might be a lot easier for the coalition, for his would-be inheritors on the Iraqi Governing Council, and even, perhaps, for anti-American insurgents if he were. Instead, the U.S. and its Iraqi allies have to contend with the question of what to do with Saddam the prisoner: Whether to try him in Iraq or abroad; how to extract essential information from a doomed man without offering him a deal, and so on. Even more important is the question of whether his capture, together with the earlier elimination...
...Saddam Hussein may not be dead, but it?s hard for Iraqis to fear his wrath when he appears on TV looking like some bedraggled apparition of Karl Marx, being checked for head lice by a latex-gloved U.S. military medic. The psychological impact on Iraqis of the former dictator?s capture will be immense, lifting, as U.S. administrator Paul Bremer put it, a cloud that has been hanging over Iraq ever since Saddam?s regime fell on April 9. It is also a huge morale boost to the U.S.-led coalition and those Iraqis who are working with them...
...most immediate question inside Iraq, however, is how Saddam?s capture will effect the ongoing insurgency that has killed more than 200 U.S. troops and wounded thousands since President Bush?s ?mission accomplished? appearance on the U.S.S. Lincoln on May 1. Saddam?s capture is certainly a body blow those among the insurgents who hoped to restore Saddam to power - but that is not necessarily a goal that has been common to all of them. The insurgency could suffer some even more immediate knocks if Saddam cooperates with his captors, to whom he could provide an intelligence bonanza...
...coalition may be hoping that by removing Saddam?s shadow over the process, more former Baathists may be brought into the political process. But it remains unlikely for now that his capture will end the insurgency. Many of the insurgents and their commanders are remnants of the old regime. But the organizing principle of the campaign has been less about restoring Saddam than about ejecting the Americans, and on that basis it has drawn support and participation from elements of the Sunni community previously hostile to the dictatorship. As much as he may have been a rallying point for some...