Monday, December 15, 2003 :::
 
The flu, apparently, has hit A Mind That Suits right where it counts the most, so the trip to Rome is off. A pity, but the prospect of the headline 'Pope Catches Deadly Flu from Ameican Pilgrim" is not a pleasing one, and so this decision is made without regret. Plus, a very long vacation in Rome for the Jubilee was marred by a slightier variation of the same problem, and it is not an experience that one actively wishes to repeat.

As for the news, of course, the weekend brought the glorious news of the capture of His High Miserableness crouching in a hole across from his palaces. His passivity while doctors inspected his throat is striking, indicating that the people who cooperated with Kay and his investigators were telling the truth: Saddam's reaction to impending doom was ordering up fantastic weapons his own scientists thought were impossible and ranting a lot.

This of course leaves the question of who, if anyone, is coordinating the insurgency, but it may well be that events of this weekend will cheer the great majority of Iraqis who want us to stay and take the wind out of the sails of those few who don't. This may also stiffen the resolve of officials who were cooperating with us even as their colleagues were being picked off.

The President's speech said it all very well, and so, if you have not read his words, they can be found here.

As the indispensible Wall Street Journal points out this morning, the only thing is for the Iraqi people to try him. As that same editorial board has decided that the liberation has, so far, been handled perfectly, they might consider how much easier it would have been to try him if we had had enough troops to secure the records of the Interior Ministry and the police departments. They have been systematically ransacked, and so the trial will suffer.

The Journal, at least, leaves its famed editorial page open to those who dissent from the "Go, Donald, Hey, Donald, Rummy-Rummy Yoo-Hoo" position, and it is remarkable to note that, this morning they ran a piece by, Eliot Cohen whose strategic theories governed the planning for the initial battles. He apparently thinks the post-liberation administration has been mixed at best, though the word "botch" gets thrown in there.

And the President has released a report saying that Saddam's weapons program has been proven--which it has been--but the Democrats are sure to pounce on the things that weren't, which is something that the Right simply has to understand: because there was no nuclear program, the Left is willing to say that we had no reason to go in, and that is a silly, if not immoral, position. But they believe it.

Strangely, the report itself is not immediately obvious on the White House website, but if located, it will get linked.

And finally, one can trust the Left to be disappointed by this most happy news for the Iraqis. They are more concerned with discrediting Bush, or the US, and so cannot find a way to just say, "oh, good, that evil man has been caught." Of course, a lot of them think Bush is worse, so it may not be just disappointment that Bush's re-election becomes an even greater probability with each passing day. And if Howard Dean is the best they can do, well, that's more than a good thing.

The redoubtable James Taranto over at The Best of the Web has produced a special edition of leftwing splutterings over the capture, but my own favorite is fromm MSNBC: Saddam arrest cheer fades into Iraqi ire at U.S.

Have a good one. Gotta, er, run.


::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 11:17 AM


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What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.