# Saddam Captured: What now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 14, 2003, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931 "2003-12-14T11:18:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/21 "2003-12-14T13:13:52Z")
Take a couple of days for the story to come out. Actually, I don’t understand why you’d think otherwise, but give it a day or two . . . ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/22 "2003-12-14T13:18:20Z")
Why does this even matter? ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/23 "2003-12-14T13:20:23Z")
It doesn’t, really. Just worth keeping the true strength of western Intelligence in perspective during all this hullabaloo. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/24 "2003-12-14T13:24:04Z")
Wouldn’t it be wiser to try him in a world court? I mean doesn’t he still have loyalists in Iraq? I tend to think just handing over to Iraqis and saying … “do your best”… would just be a big mess. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/25 "2003-12-14T13:24:15Z")
He shouldn’t have been taken alive. As long as the man lives, he is a threat. There is always the chance he will be “rescued” by loyalist, or that his freedom will be purchased through bribery or through a farce of a trial that ends in his acquital. If he is tried, found guilty, and imprisoned rather than executed, he will remain a threat. If his head had been carried out of that cellar by one man and his body by two or three others, the issue would have been settled. He lived by the sword and should have died by it. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/26 "2003-12-14T13:26:30Z")
Well, he didn’t oblige us by shooting at our soldiers. They took him without firing a shot. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/27 "2003-12-14T13:33:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by adaher \* > \*\*Well, he didn’t oblige us by shooting at our soldiers. They took him without firing a shot. \*\* Completely beside the point. He should have died in the dirt like so many of his country men did on his orders. ---
**Author:** ![MrTuffPaws](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@MrTuffPaws](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrTuffPaws)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/28 "2003-12-14T13:42:34Z")
So what if we took the 25 million and spent it creating a look a like. Yeah, then we placed the clone into the cellar, called over the Fox reporter, and then said TAAAA DAAAAA!!! Sadam and Iraq are solutions to a problem that did not exist in the first place. At least one of our goals is finished, but I fear it will do little good. If any thing, I think the attacks on US forces will increase in the short term. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/29 "2003-12-14T13:43:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LouisB \* > \*\*There is always the chance he will be “rescued” by loyalist \*\* I have a little more faith in the US military than this… :dubious: Let him be tried in Iraq by Iraqis, and let them decide his fate. ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/30 "2003-12-14T13:46:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LouisB \* > \*\*Completely beside the point. He should have died in the dirt like so many of his country men did on his orders. \*\* I don’t think summary execution is the schtick of an enlightened nation, no matter how unpopular the prisoner or how morally just it would be. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/31 "2003-12-14T13:47:12Z")
Iraq was never a problem??? CITE?? ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/32 "2003-12-14T13:47:23Z")
He **should** have been taking alive. The fact he was is a big plus. This is the man who spoke of fighting to the last and tried to stir a religious war of martyrs. Yet he was captured without any fuss with unfired weapons in his possession. It shows he was nothing but a bully and a fraud. However, whether this makes any real difference to the situation in Iraq is a different matter. Sure, it’s great news for the average Iraqi. But the conditions he was captured in kind of suggests that he had become a lonely man, with few real supporters. It won’t matter to those opposing the occupation, they don’t care about Saddam. And still no sign of those WMDs. So Bush still gets zero credit. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/33 "2003-12-14T13:49:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by whuckfistle \* > \*\*Iraq was never a problem??? > > CITE?? \*\* Sorry, — **MrTuffPaws** , that was for. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/34 "2003-12-14T13:56:46Z")
We`ll have to see how much the bastard talks to really get an idea of how much credit the Bush admin gets from the libs it seems. Clearly, there is isolated Al Queda support still in the country - one of the reasons we went to war to begin with- to squash Al Queda. I say they should guarantee his safety from execution if he spills the beans about all the shit that happened under his command. WMD`s, loss of life, support for Al Queda, and other evil deeds he was wrapped up in with other countries, etc… ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/35 "2003-12-14T14:01:43Z")
What’s next? He becomes Howard Dean’s running mate, naturally. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/36 "2003-12-14T14:03:27Z")
They should stop showing the footage - he looks like some irrational, confused homeless guy. Some people (you know who they are) are soon going to feel **sorry** for him. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/37 "2003-12-14T14:04:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > \*\*What’s next? > > He becomes Howard Dean’s running mate, naturally. \*\* What, so Bush can whup him again? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/38 "2003-12-14T14:12:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jack Batty \* > \*\*Wouldn’t it be wiser to try him in a world court? I mean doesn’t he still have loyalists in Iraq? I tend to think just handing over to Iraqis and saying … “do your best”… would just be a big mess. \*\* Actually, I believe such instructions will be, “do your best…and don’t fuck it up”. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/39 "2003-12-14T14:51:09Z")
As we speak, I am watching CNN. A “sidebar” video insert is apparently a crowd of Iraqis celebrating the capture. Maybe “crowd” is too grand a word, more like “twenty”. It has long been the postion of the Bushiviks that the greater portion of the trouble in Iraq springs from “Saddam loyalists”. Not having much independent information, I am suspicious of this line entirely due to its source. If that is the case, however, we can expect such resistance to collapse instantly, and peace and harmony to greet President Chalabi’s inaugaration ceremony. And our soldiers will get home just in time for the massive Support Our President and Re-elect Our Troops! rally. ---
**Author:** ![MrTuffPaws](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@MrTuffPaws](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrTuffPaws)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931/40 "2003-12-14T14:52:43Z")
whuckfistle: Sorry, been up all night. Anyway, you are not going to get sites (to tired), but I will tell you that one, before the hub bub of Iraq being an axis of evil, US troop counts in the middle east were dropping. Also, Iraq never once threatened any bordering nation after the first gulf war. Also, UN compliance by Iraq was upheld. Sounds pretty docile to me. Containment seemed to be working until those who were containing decided that it wasn’t. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-captured-what-now/218931.md?page=3)