We must take our time turning over Saddam

Pity Saddam Hussein didn't put up a fight when raiders flushed him from the hole where he'd been hiding.

Instead, the Lion of Baghdad came along quietly when caught by U.S. forces. Had he not thrown up his hands and surrendered, the issue of what to do with him would be moot.

Instead, he meekly crawled out of his hole and surrendered. Not the dictator at all, but a frail, sick, old man being probed and prodded by medics.

According to news accounts, Saddam had no way of contacting anyone from his hole and probably hasn't had much to do with the insurgents' attacks on U.S. soldiers.

That means anyone hoping for a quick end to the attacks with Saddam's capture may be in for a disappointment.

However, he may be a valuable source for information we've been seeking for a long time, like where are the weapons of mass destruction or the rest of his entourage, for that matter.

Anyone expecting a quick execution should get ready for a long wait. Paul Bremer suspended the death penalty in Iraq when Saddam was deposed, thus providing the dictator with a measure of mercy he never gave his victims.

President Bush is calling for a public trial for Saddam, who when told about the people celebrating his capture said they were "mobs" and referred to those in mass graves as "thieves."

Regardless of what we want to do to him, the people who should decide his fate are the people who had to suffer under his thumb for 30 years.

No one has more cause than the Iraqi people, and no one has a better motivation to put an end to the terror by trying and convicting the dictator.

But we must proceed with care - Saddam is still valuable to the terrorists as a figurehead, if nothing else.

Turning Saddam over to an Iraqi government not yet prepared to deal with him would be a mistake.