While some found his capture hard to believe, other North Olympic Peninsula residents interviewed Sunday already had strong feelings about what should happen next to deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
A sampling of quotations:
* “Make him pay,” Port Angeles shipwright Howard Lacy bluntly said Sunday in the parking lot of Swain’s General Store in Port Angeles.
For Lacy, the memory of the New York City terrorist attacks was still vivid.
“I lost a friend in one of the towers who was on a plane,” said Lacy, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, airliner attacks that launched the all-out U.S. war on terrorism.
* Sequim dental hygienist Twyla Luke said Saddam’s capture was good on two fronts:
“I think it’s going to be good for the people to know he’s not in power anymore . . . and it’s going to be a really big boost for the troops.”
* Retired accountant Nancy Williams of LaPush was still reeling from the news Sunday afternoon.
“It’s just unbelievable that they caught him,” Williams said. “I still can’t believe it. What do you do with him?
* Al Smith, a Marrowstone Island Vietnam veteran and self-employed woodworker, said he was glad the U.S. finally caught up with Saddam.
“I hope it will be a positive thing ultimately. Hopefully the response attacks won’t be too terrible and it will ultimately lead to the peace they are looking for,” Smith said.
He believes a World Court should put Saddam on trial.
It’s not our job,” he said. “It’s a world problem.”
* Chloe Swantner, a 16-year-old Port Townsend High School student, said she thought the capture “sounded so hyped up.”
“It’s strange that they think capturing him is going to solve something,” Swantner said.
————–
More viewpoints appear in the Monday Peninsula Daily News.
