The Mother of All Captures
Happiness; Woe and Comfort were the reactions after the Mother of All Captures
After the arrest of the dictator without resistance the reactions to the event were mixed. It was expected that after 7 months of runaway and hiding Saddam will get tired and then liable for mistakes. His guards may also sell him out. Whatever the cause; it was a (Shock and Woe) for Saddam supporters especially among the Arabs who considered him as their hero. They wrote a lot about him and how he will fight his enemies until he die. They thought that he is a brave and hero but they were wrong in their judgment, because the strong person will never kill his opponents easily. The only one who kills like Saddam is the timid and fearful person. This is what had been proven lastly by Saddam himself during his surrender. This was also the woe which shocked his supporters.
In Iraq there were immediate celebrations but sadness and disappointment in Fulojah, Hawijah, Samara, Ramadi, Tikrit and some parts of Baghdad which supported him before. In Tikrit there were some protestors against his arrest! Some killed in Samara and Ramadi after they started to destroy buildings and looting a train. In actual fact they should protest against his humiliated way of surrendering himself. They should curse him for being a deceptive person who requested them to fight until death and he gave himself in less than a rat.
Al Jazeera and Al Arabyia covered the news directly. I think Montaha Al ramahi from Al Arabyia cried a lot and her face was so sad as it was the case with the others. She herself cried at his statute. Both TV channels attenuated the celebration news and concentrated on the supporter of Saddam in the Sunni areas. Al Hayat news papers said that the Arabs will soon curse every Tikriti including Salah Al Deen Al Auiobi but the newspapers forgot that the latter is Kurdish and not Tikriti though Saddam named his Tifrit city after his name because he was from that area.
In Kuwait there was general happiness because they know who was Saddam though only for 6 months not like the Iraqis for 35 years. Amro mosa said no one from the GC called him to tell him about the news! He said it is the end of the regime. Only now Mr Mosa agreed that the regime has ended though he was not Iraqi to fear Saddam. In Jordan officially they said there is a new page started in the history of Iraq but there were sadness and some kisses for Saddam pictures among the Jordanian! Hussien Mjali the Head of the Jordanian Lawyers Union said they will form a group of lawyers for the defendant of Saddam. He added that Saddam is the actual president of Iraq because the occupation is illegal. The previous head Salah Armoti told that the American forces have violated the human rights law by showing Saddam in such a way as if the American asked him to surrender himself in this way! What a joke! The Palestinians demonstrated supporting Saddam and Hamas and Islamic Jihad tried to attenuate the victory and called the Iraqi to increase their resistance. Their PM Mr Kraeea said this is an internal Iraqi affair! Surprise how it is internal affair and the world as a whole celebrated it or shocked about it including the Palestinian who demonstrated against it. If it is internal affairs why they interfere then? The reverse was in Israel. There were happiness and joy. Most of the Israeli TV stations stopped their programmes to broadcast the news. In Syria there were denial of that Saddam arrested and sadness when the news came true. A reporter from Syria said the people are in a (woe). After things became clear they said it is an American game for the elections! Their newspapers attenuated the news and consider it as less important than other domestic news!
The rest of the world showed different response of comfort and wished a new era of peace, unity and reconciliation in Iraq. This of course should not affect justice for those who committed crimes during Saddam regime.
Saddam's daughter Raghad in Jordan told Al Arabiya that she was unable to see her father like that and she said that they will defend him with the help of her Arab supporter and all around the world. Well, well now Al Arabiya got Raghad instead of her father. Is she going to be the leader of the resistance instead of her father or may be like all the other Arab states she will request to the predecessor of her father to be the president of Iraq. A correspondent told the Arab News newspaper that Raghad was crying and told him by telephone repeatedly "I wished I had never lived to this day". Saddam's grandchildren cried at their exclusive private school in Jordan. They were shielded in the school from their mates and their private driver arrived to take them home. Let Raghad and Rana and Hala experience just a drop from the misery that their father and they put the Iraqis in for decades. They have to be brought at least as witnesses to the tribunal court in Baghdad.
Human rights organizations and UN Kofi Anan talked about human rights about treatment of Saddam! They waked up now after a long sleep during the time of Saddam mass graves and killing field. Congratulations!!!
About Saddam himself he was still defiant and not regretting his crimes. Some of the GC members who saw him (Al Chalabi, Al Robai, and Bachachi) told that he used abusive and nasty language with lots of swearing wards when he saw them and when one of them told him that the Iraqis are happy about his capture he said that they are a mobs. Saddam was uncooperative during the initial interrogation but they found with him documents about the leaders of the (resistance). This will help in the dismantling of these networks.
In general there were happiness in Iraq and some Arabs; a woe in the Arab world in general and a comfort in the world.
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