From top: Jeff Parker, Diane Highberger, Steve Kliewer, Leon Gray, Bob Casey

The world got an early Christmas present this week when U.S. Special Forces captured Iraqi President Saddam Hussein after he was found hiding in a hole outside of his hometown of Tikrit Saturday night.

The capture triggered celebrations around the globe as it marked the end of one of the most intense manhunts in history. Hussein is considered by many as one of the most brutal dictators since Adolf Hitler, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens.

Even in Wallowa County, which has sent more than a dozen young men and women to Iraq to assist in the War on Terror, residents celebrated the news of Hussein’s demise.

“I consider it good news,” said Diane Highberger, director of Eastern Oregon University’s Enterprise office. “I think it is an incredible event. We needed some good news. This is a tough time to have loved ones away and in danger.”

Bob Casey, a retired Forest Service ranger agreed.

“I am tickled plum to death,” said Casey. “I’m glad they found him down there in that hole.

Hussein surrendered without a fight when U.S. troops pulled him from the dank hole where he was found disheveled and living in squalor, in sharp contrast to the lavish palaces he once inhabited.

“That he just gave up and that was the end of it was surprising,” said Jeff Parker, an Enterprise area rancher who heard of the capture early Sunday morning on the sports channel ESPN. “If he’s that tough and expects suicide bombers to die for the cause, then gives up so easy … I don’t think he’s all there.”

“God, he looked like hell, but who wouldn’t if they were crawling around in a hole,” Parker added.

With Hussein now jailed in an undisclosed location, world leaders are now talking about what to do with him. American officials are currently concentrating on interrogations to obtain intelligence on the insurgency that has taken the lives of nearly 200 American soldiers. The Bush Administration has indicated it will work with the Iraqi people to develop a way to bring him to justice that will withstand international scrutiny.

Hussein’s mental state concerns Leon Gray of Joseph.

“I’m afraid he’ll get a big lawyer and they’ll get him off,” said Gray, adding, “They’ll complain that he was abused or something. I think they ought to just kill him. There’s no sense in dealing with the bastard. Just get it over with.”

Casey said he believes the Iraqi people ought to be the ones to decide Hussein’s fate.

“I think he ought to be tried in Iraq by a jury of his peers,” said Casey. “They have some interesting penalties over there, like cut off a hand, cut off a foot.”

Steve Kliewer, director of the Wallowa Valley Mental Health Center, suggested that Hussein’s capture may have more public relations value for the U.S. than any real practical value.

“I don’t think at this point (Hussein’s capture) means anything,” he said. “He was gone as a viable leader.”

Kliewer is worried that all the hype about Hussein will steer attention away from the state and federal budget crises with dire consequences to the most vulnerable members of society.

“My first response was, ‘This is great,'” said Kliewer. “My second response was, ‘Darn, this will deflect people from thinking about what’s going on in the rest of the world.'”

Kliewer, who worked in Iraq with Northwest Medical Teams after Operation Desert Storm, said there is no question that Saddam Hussein was “a despicable leader.”

“We saw evidence of entire villages that had been wiped out and bulldozed,” he said. “It was clear there was genocide going on.”

Even so, he believes the war in Iraq was a mistake because it may destabilize the region.

“I look for us to get hit real hard,” he added.