Saddam Hussein’s Capture

“Cracking a Tribal Code to Catch Hussein” (Dec. 21) outlines the slow, steady, persistent process of U.S. Army intelligence-gathering that led to the capture of Saddam Hussein. Diligent solders who spoke no Arabic and did not attend an Ivy League college (or, for some, any college) came to understand and map complex, loyal tribal relationships. It took all summer and fall, but U.S. forces finally cracked the tribal code.

Perhaps if the Bush administration had begun recruiting and training college students in language, anthropology and cultural studies back in September 2001, when it decided to go to war with Iraq, the light of understanding and the hunt would have been shorter. Intelligence and planning?

Suzanne T. Reading

Crestline

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Too bad Hussein didn’t think to hide in skid row in downtown L.A. (photos, Dec. 16). He would have blended right in with the unnamed, unwanted, unacknowledged people there, many of whom are unshaven and in tattered clothing.

With his money he could have bought off one of those treasured freeway off-ramp occupiers who ask for handouts and from there run the resistance in Iraq on his cellphone. It probably would have been years before he was identified.

Dee Hawkins

Pasadena

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Re Hussein’s capture: I haven’t felt so safe since we kidnapped former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega.

Clint Everett

San Diego

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I assume Hussein will be found guilty of crimes against humanity. The overwhelming majority of people, including the president, are asking for the “ultimate” penalty, namely, death.

I disagree. Crimes against humanity should result in the perpetrator being required to spend the remainder of his life performing humanitarian deeds while living an impoverished existence. A sentence such as this could have a transforming effect on mankind, demonstrating the strength of compassion that resides in the ethics of all the major religions. Given that weapons of mass destruction are a reality in our world, we need to devise punishments that potentially diminish their chance of being used.

Gandhi once said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” It is time to heed his warning.

Saul Goldfarb

Oak Park