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The capture of Saddam has restored to the United States the initiative in its campaign in Iraq. That initiative, in turn, gives momentum to the fundamental American objective of spreading democracy around the world.

The psychological impact of American soldiers taking Saddam prisoner cannot be overestimated. Nor can the images of the dictator who opulently laid claim to the mantle of Hammurabi and Saladin, disheveled and filthy, humiliatingly submitting to the medical examination of an American military physician.

Beyond these images was the nature of Saddam's capture. The military despot who defiantly thumbed his nose at the West, who interminably claimed victory over Iran and the United States, who eagerly sent hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to their deaths in futile offensives, who proudly paid the families of Palestinian suicide bombers — this hero of heroes hid in a hole, gave up without a fight, without taking his own life, despite having a pistol at his side.

A Saudi newspaper editor expressed the mixed emotions of many in the Arab world.

"On the one hand, we are very happy, relieved that this man is out of the picture and he will not threaten us anymore," Khaled M. Batarfi told the New York Times. "On the other hand, to see him so humiliated — he is an Arab president, after all. Whether you love him or hate him, he is still a member of the family. He did not fight like his sons; he went like a dog or a cave man, so they feel sorry more for Arab pride than for the man."