‘Now It Is Time to Look to the Future’

Comments by L. Paul Bremer III, U.S. civil administrator in Iraq, on Sunday regarding the capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.

Saddam Hussein was captured Saturday, Dec. 13, at about 8:30 p.m. local [time], in a cellar in the town of Ad Dawr, which is about [10 miles] south of Tikrit.... I want to say a few words to the people of Iraq. This is a great day in Iraq’s history. For decades, hundreds of thousands of you suffered at the hands of this cruel man. For decades, Saddam Hussein divided you citizens against each other. For decades, he threatened and attacked your neighbors. Those days are over forever. Now it is time to look to the future, to your future of hope, to a future of reconciliation. Iraq’s future, your future, has never been more full of hope. The tyrant is a prisoner.

The economy is moving forward. You have before you the prospect of a sovereign government in a few months. With the arrest of Saddam Hussein, there is a new opportunity for the members of the former regime, whether military or civilian, to end their bitter opposition. Let them now come forward in a spirit of reconciliation and hope, lay down their arms and join you, their fellow citizens, in the task of building the new Iraq.

Now is the time for all Iraqis -- Arabs and Kurds, Sunnis, Shia, Christian and Turkoman -- to build a prosperous, democratic Iraq at peace with itself and with its neighbors.