IU responds to coalition's capture of Saddam

Senior Steve Weck was woken up by his roommate Sunday morning expecting to be whitewashed with newly fallen snow. Instead, it turned out to be something "really great" -- the capture of Saddam Hussein.\n"This has been a long time coming," Weck said. "We needed to go in there. Things were getting out of hand in the Middle East. There needed to be some sort of change."\nAfter nine months on the run, Saddam Hussein was found Saturday hiding in a spider hole near a farmhouse outside his hometown of Tikrit, in what coalition forces are calling "Operation Red Dawn."\nWhen the capture was announced by U.S. Civil Administrator Paul Bremer, Iraqi journalists leapt to their feet, shouting "Death to Saddam.\nIn Baghdad, the news was greeted with singing, dancing and celebratory gunfire, though the streets were strangely silent in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit. The news of Saddam's capture was also met enthusiastically at IU -- but without the gunfire.\nWeck said he believes President Bush has now gained much needed support at home and abroad.\n"I hate to be bold, but I think Bush might have just secured the election in 2004," he said. "He's just brought down a huge world leader that was causing us a lot of problems. Plus, it's kind of an 'I told you so' to France and Germany. Now they know they should have been here with us."\nSome students hope this will raise efforts to capture another international fugitive -- Osama bin Laden.\n"Hopefully this will open the door to catch Osama," freshman Steve Schmitt said. "Bush has done a pretty good job of handling 9/11, and now Iraq. I wake up in the morning and feel safe."\nSchmitt said he agrees with Weck this will give Bush a rush of momentum going into next year's election.\n"I don't see who can compete with Bush if he says, 'Hey, I caught Saddam.' No one can point the finger now and say he didn't," Schmitt said.\nEven those who didn't completely support the U.S.-led war in Iraq are giving Bush credit for the capture.\n"This kind of gives him a little brownie point from me," sophomore Lacy Kelly said. "He set out to do something and did it, even if he did it in kind of a roundabout way. I think it's a good thing Saddam got captured. It's going to be a good thing for Iraq."\nFreshman Rahul Reddy agrees the U.S. needs to finish what it started.\n"I really wasn't for the war, but once we went in there we might as well win it," Reddy said. "This hasn't really changed my view. I still don't really like that we're there, but it's good to see we actually achieved something."\nThough Saddam has been found, others still wonder about the location of weapons of mass destruction, the Bush administration's reason for waging war in Iraq.\n"I'm surprised we found him," freshman Arjun Mehta said. "We finally have some factual evidence, but we still haven't found any of the weapons. Overall though, I think this is going to help Iraqis gain confidence in the new government"