Saddam's Capture Justifies War for Some
By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer
TIKRIT, Iraq - For Staff Sgt. Isaac Day and many other American soldiers serving here, ridding Iraq (news - web sites) of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) made the war worthwhile — regardless of whether anyone ever finds weapons of mass destruction.
Latest headlines:
· 50 Killed in Car Bombing South of Baghdad
AP - 4 minutes ago
· Second Japanese convoy arrives at Iraq military base
AFP - 19 minutes ago
· Status of Iraq's 55 Most Wanted
AP - 36 minutes ago
Special Coverage
"I'm glad we got Saddam," said Day, of Tarpon Springs, Fla. "When I grow old I can tell my grandchildren that we liberated this country."
That was a sentiment expressed in dozens of interviews with U.S. soldiers stationed near Tikrit, Saddam's hometown and a center of resistance to the U.S. occupation.
"Saddam lived in splendor while the rest of his people had to fend for themselves," Maj. Paul Lehto of Kingston, Mass., said over lunch here.
Despite widespread resistance from some of America's oldest and closest allies, President Bush (news - web sites) launched the war last March because Iraq allegedly possessed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. Senior administration officials also said Saddam wanted to reconstitute a nuclear weapons program which was cut short by the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites).
However, no such weapons have been found. David Kay, who led the weapons search after the end of active combat, has said he doubted that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction in recent years.
"My satisfaction came when we were riding through from Kuwait and all these children were shouting 'America is number one'," said Staff Sgt. Temu Gibson from Schenectady, N.Y.
Most of the 130,000 American troops stationed in Iraq have access to the Internet and other media and are aware of the growing political storm over the failure to find any weapons.
A number of them say Saddam's brutality to his own people justified the war.
"I have a shoebox full of pictures of people who have gone missing over the last 30 years," said one soldier who asked to be identified as Mac. "And people are getting all tied up over the WMD issue. Coming here was the right thing to do." |
