Bush says Saddam hanging milestone, US Iraqis dance

CRAWFORD, Texas, Dec 30 (Reuters) US President George W Bush said Saddam Hussein's execution on Saturday would not end violence in Iraq but Iraqi expatriates danced in the streets and some ordinary Americans welcomed his hanging as justice served.

While Bush called Saddam's death an important milestone, he noted it came ''at the end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops,'' and said ''difficult choices and more sacrifices'' lie ahead in Iraq.

His carefully measured words, issued in a written statement from his Texas ranch, contrasted with scenes of jubilation in Dearborn, Michigan, a Detroit suburb that is home to the largest Arab-American community in the United States and where Saddam was widely hated by Iraqi expatriates.

As a procession of cars blared horns and cruised Dearborn's Warren Avenue, men danced to Arabic music and tossed handfuls of candy at the news of Saddam's death, which came this morning in Iraq and late last evening in the United States.

''I want to thank President Bush,'' said Haytham Almawla, 35.

''He said he would take Saddam out and he did it.'' Despite such pockets of heartfelt support, Bush is struggling to find a winning formula nearly four years after the March 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam. US public backing for the war has slumped amid relentless violence and a US military death toll that is nearing 3,000.

In a November election widely regarded as a referendum on Iraq, US voters ousted Bush's Republican Party from power in both houses of Congress. Bush, who recently acknowledged in a newspaper interview that the United States is not winning the war, is working on a new strategy for Iraq that is expected to be announced next month.

''Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself,'' Bush said in his statement.

''Many difficult choices and further sacrifices lie ahead.'' Bush was told around 6:15 p.m. CST (0545 hrs IST) that the execution would take place in a few hours and was asleep when it occurred, said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.

''The president concluded his day knowing that the final phase of bringing Saddam Hussein to justice was under way,'' Stanzel said.

Saddam was found guilty on Nov. 5 in the killing, torture and other crimes against the Shi'ite population of the town of Dujail after Dawa militants tried to assassinate him there in 1982.

RELIEF, SKEPTICISM Reaction to the execution from the US Congress, which returns next week under the control of Democrats, was largely relief.

Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden, the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a potential 2008 presidential candidate, said the execution had closed ''one of the darkest chapters'' in Iraq's history.

Some Americans, while welcoming news of the execution, were skeptical it would help. Cincinnati student Alyssa Garrett, 18, said Saddam's death would not stem the bloodshed.

''Sure we got him and all that, but we were there for all the wrong reasons,'' said Garrett. ''It won't change anything.'' But in the dusty town of Douglas, Arizona, on the border with Mexico, Saddam's death was celebrated.

''I wouldn't mind hanging Saddam myself, I think it's a good thing,'' said Lynn Kartchner, a Vietnam veteran and gun shop owner.

Human rights groups condemned the execution and the trial it followed.

''History will judge the deeply flawed Dujail trial and this execution harshly,'' said Richard Dicker, head of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch.

A poll this week showed 82 per cent of Americans supported the execution, the highest support of six nations surveyed. The Harris Interactive online poll, conducted Nov. 30 to Dec. 9, found 69 per cent support for the execution in Britain, 58 percent in France and 53 per cent in Germany.

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