A pox has been lifted from Iraq. The curse that was Qusai and Odai Hussein has been removed, courtesy of the 101st Airborne and U.S. Special Forces.

While it is distasteful to celebrate the demise of other human beings, the people of Iraq, and all people who value justice, in this case should be forgiven this trespass. The Hussein boys were just plain bad. They were movie-villain evil, and the list of their atrocities is so vile it’s difficult to believe.

Odai was a pugnacious viper who struck out at anyone with the misfortune to displease him. Reports say Odai beat an army officer to death when the officer refused to let Odai dance with his wife. He brutalized Iraq’s athletes, was accused of abducting young women whom he fancied and led the Fedayeen Saddam, a paramilitary enforcer army.

As difficult as it is to believe, Qusai, the elder son, might have been even worse. He was a trusted confident of his father and avoided the spotlight that his brother craved. He headed Saddam’s intelligence and security forces and was responsible for the violent oppression of minority and opposition groups. Mass executions, torture and eco-terrorism were his specialties.

We would have preferred the capture and trial of the Hussein brothers and the disclosure of information about Iraq’s weapons programs that they surely held. But war is a dirty business, and the pursuit of the perfect outcome should not stand in the way of an acceptable outcome.

So far, attacks have continued against U.S. troops. But we hope the deaths of Qusai and Odai will eventually lead to an end of guerrilla operations. This victory could be the catalyst for a more stable Iraq.

Good riddance, Qusai and Odai.


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Always growing


One of Maine’s most amazing “retirees” has died at the age of 101, and many of us are richer for the past 33 years Dr. O. Currier McEwen spent as a full-time resident of this state.

A few years ago, when McEwen was interviewed for a 1997 cover story in People, Places and Plants magazine, he said he’d planned to retire to garden a little and sail a lot. That didn’t happen.

McEwen, an expert on rheumatic diseases and a former dean of the New York University School of Medicine, also had played a crucial role in the founding of the NYU Medical Center.

When he moved to Harpswell, he soon realized how few rheumatologists were in the state, so he opened a private practice at the age of 68. At the same time, he intensified his work as a world-renowned hybridizer of Siberian and Japanese irises, the reason so many gardeners know of him. They know about the first yellow Siberian iris, which he introduced. They have his books. They may know about the Luther Burbank award he received from the American Horticultural Society in 1995, given for extraordinary work in plant breeding.

In all this, he set a fine standard for a productive old age, for continuing intellectual pursuits and, as he said last year just before his 100th birthday, for always setting new goals for himself.


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