The two faces of liberation

How much better, he said, if the Hussein hideout was actually the command center of the diehard remnants of his criminal regime, the heart of a movement, and not solely of a haggard symbol of what used to be.

Through their joy, US and Iraqi officials were engaged in confronting the realities of what can now be called the post-Saddam, if not yet the truly postwar, period in what remains a ruined society that has only begun to recover.

This is a realism that will help in dealing with what might be called the two faces of liberation.

Even without any clear breakthrough against what remains a well-financed, well-planned and well-operated insurgency, the significance of the capture is impossible to underestimate.

From Basra to Kirkuk, this glorious event represents the true liberation of the Iraqi people. The televised toppling of Saddam's statue in April symbolized tactical triumph for the United States; for Iraqis what happened Saturday night was infinitely more meaningful. The difference between an ongoing insurgency with the most hated and feared symbol of resistance loose in the shadows and one with him in the clink is gigantic.

However, if Iraq now stands shakily liberated from Saddam Hussein, violent resistance to the American-led occupation of the country now stands just as liberated. US officials said with more certainty yesterday that the former elements of his murderous regime have been responsible for the majority of the lethal attacks on other Iraqis, occupying forces, and international aid workers.

These "dead enders," to use Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's apt phrase, were not merely Saddam loyalists, however; they were also the hardest core of a movement known as Ba'athism that Saddam Hussein at times led, at times hijacked over the past generation of terror. This movement, a Middle East version of national socialism and fascism, now gets a chance to fight free of the dictator's baggage, more free to fight as a force seeking the liberation of Iraq from occupation. That fight is far from over.

Politically, the capture and the images of a humiliated Saddam also display liberation's two faces. To a degree Americans can't fully grasp, Saddam cast an intimidating presence over the still-evolving efforts inside the country to attempt the construction of a new legitimacy. Now that he is videotaped in captivity, that presence evaporates.

However, the political forces inside Iraq that are either hostile to occupation or devoutly in support of some form of Islamic theocracy are also liberated. They cannot be accused of fronting for Saddam anymore. They will have to be faced squarely on the merits, which will be much trickier as the glow from the capture inevitably fades.

For the United States, the consequences from Saddam's arrest promise to be ambiguous. Forgetting the Democratic presidential candidates for a moment, the larger question is the condition of homefront opinion about a journey that still has years and scores of billions of dollars ahead of it.

The postwar chaos has produced confusion, division, ambivalence, and crude recrimination -- in the Bush administration and around the country.

Saddam's capture is likely to influence opinion in two ways. First, the shifting views on whether the United States was right to invade Iraq are likely to shift sharply toward the affirmative.

More important, opinion is likely to shift toward public support of continued US involvement. However, critics suspicious of a lengthy, American-dominated occupation will also be liberated from the unfair taint of being Saddam apologists. Some of their arguments, especially about building greater international support, are cogent. President Bush would be wiser to listen than to counterattack.

Together, these shifts will present an extraordinary opportunity for a smarter, better policy.

The opportunity begins this morning, with former secretary of state James Baker III's departure for worldwide diplomacy whose purpose has been broadened to include securing that support and not just urging forgiveness of Saddam-era Iraqi debt.

A successful Baker mission would put the best face on the weekend's liberation.

Thomas Oliphant's e-mail address is oliphant@globe.com.