Popular theories and reactions on the streets of Baghdad to the announcement that Saddam Hussein had been captured. As heard by Montrealer Ehab Lotayef, member of Iraq Solidarity Project in Iraq.

Baghdad, December 15, 2003. According to one theory circulating in Baghdad, we are not living the few days following the capture of Saddam Hussein. Saddam was caught many days, maybe months, ago, as that rumor goes. It has just become more convenient for the Americans to catch him now. And there are other theories, of course. It is not really Saddam who was caught. It's him but the only reason he didn't put up a fight is that he was drugged; they gassed his hiding place before catching him.

No matter what the truth is, capturing Saddam no more has any practical consequence. It wouldn't have had any even if it happened months ago. The important thing is that Iraq fell to the invading army and is now under American (although maybe disguised in another name) control. And the other truth is that the Iraqis know that very well. Day after day all they care about is what is happening to them now and what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is getting harder day after day and the security situation is not improving.

When I asked one of the perpetrators of the first theory, why would the Americans stage the capture as it happened this week, he said that he and his family, although adamant haters of Saddam who were delighted when the Americans came and toppled the regime, have, as of a month ago, started to lose patience with the occupation.

The attention given to the capture operation at this point serves only one purpose: diverting attention from the problems on the ground and improving - although superficially - the image of the American administration.

As for the Iraqi people, even the groups who were brutalized by him and his regime, the way the capture operation was portrayed and his humiliation throughout just added insult to their injury. To them he is still an Iraqi and a tough one for that, and his humiliation by foreigners is a humiliation to them all.

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Ehab Lotayef, a Montreal poet and a computer engineer at McGill University was in Iraq with the Iraq Solidarity Project during the month of December. The Iraq Solidarity Project (ISP) is a Montreal-based grassroots initiative to help provide international monitoring of occupation forces and the corporate reconstruction of Iraq and protective accompaniment to Iraqis under the occupation. To join ISP listserv, send a blank email to psi-...@lists.riseup.net. For more about ISP, p...@riseup.net.