View From the Bushes

Well, unless you've been living in a hole in the ground, you've heard that Saddam was found in, ironically enough, a hole in the ground. It's interesting, because when I saw Uday and Qusay, I thought those two could have been anyone. Of course, they had been shot up and their faces weren't nearly as ubiquitious as their father's, but I expected the same thing when they finally got Saddam, that I would look at him and think to myself, "Ok if you say so." But even with the beard and the scraggly hair and everything else, I could tell just by looking at the eyes that it was Saddam. Perhaps I was helped by seeing my own crazy eyes every morning in the bathroom mirror.

There are lots of predictions about what will happen with the bombings and the insurgency now that Saddam has been captured, and they seem to be all over the map, with nearly as many people saying that the capture would break the back of the insurgents or that it would spur them to even greater acts of violence. My own prediction is that there will be a temporary upsurge but that the capture will still mark the beginning of the end. The more I hear, the more I think capturing him alive was for the best. Not only does it deprive the Saddam loyalists of a martyr, but it gives them the opposite -- a pathetic figure who urged his own people to give their lives but ended up surrendering without firing a shot. This is particular important in the Arab world, where I think many expected a lot more out of Saddam.

I think regardless of your political affiliation and regardless of your feelings about the war, it's nice when the home team wins one. I think the reaction of Iraqi journalists to the news of the capture was particularly telling. While the Western journalists set in the practiced "I'm objective" pose, the Iraqis stood up and shouted "Death to Saddam" (at least I think that's what they were shouting, it was in Arabic) for several minutes. In any case, it was cool.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross