LOOKS LIKE IT’S NOT JUST AMERICAN IRAQIS WHO ARE SICK OF SADDAM HUSSEIN — as this article in the New York Times demonstrates:

In a country where the merest hint of dissent had been a death sentence in years past, many foreign reporters have been approached in recent days by individuals offering forbidden thoughts. Taking advantage of moments in which the official “minders” assigned to journalists by the information ministry were distracted, or briefly absent, these Iraqis burst out with vehemence against the government, and often against Mr. Hussein personally.

One man, an out-of-work engineer, sat down beside a reporter relaxing at a Baghdad coffeehouse. After initial pleasantries in English, the man, who gave his age as 58, glanced about to make sure he was not being overheard, then leaned forward and said that almost no Iraqis would support Mr. Hussein if he allowed Iraq’s dispute with the world over weapons of mass destruction to plunge the country into another war.

“We had eight years of war with Iran in the 1980’s, and all we got was death,” he said. “Then we had the war over Kuwait, and more death. Nobody here wants another war. We want jobs. We want peace, not death.” The man left without giving his name, and disappeared quickly into the crowd. . . .

“What the Iraqi people would like to hang on their walls would be banners saying, `Yes, yes, Mr. Bush. Yes, yes, America.’ There are 22 million Iraqis, and every one of them has 100 stories to tell of their suffering under Saddam.” He gestured to the secret police building and added, “If you go there, you are lucky if you live three days, maybe five.”

Hmm. Maybe those Ceaucescu comparisons aren’t so out of place after all. This conclusion sure sounds that way:

Several Iraqis said scores of Baath Party members had mailed their membership cards to party headquarters in recent weeks, apparently in a bid to distance themselves from Mr. Hussein should an American invasion come.

With a membership of about 500,000, the party has a monopoly on virtually all top positions in the government, armed forces and state security agencies — the very apparatus of fear that has kept Mr. Hussein in power. In the past, quitting the party at a time of crisis for Mr. Hussein would have been seen as treachery, and treated as such. But now, apparently, those mailing in their cards have chosen to take that risk in the hope of avoiding something still more menacing — the specter of the kind of vengeance killings that have been seen elsewhere when brutal oligarchies have come tumbling down.

The trick is, of course, that for Saddam to be deposed by Iraqis, they have to believe that the alternative is having him deposed by Americans. Somebody tell these people.