Sonset - Qusay and Uday

Sonset - Qusay and Uday buy the farm.

Says Den Beste:

I think it indicates a significant chance, perhaps as high as 1 in 4, that we'll also bag Saddam himself in the next couple of weeks. First, whatever source fingered Qusay and Uday may also have provided information about Saddam's whereabouts. Second, prisoners and physical evidence from the site of yesterday's raid may give clues as to Saddam's whereabouts. Third, this may panic Saddam into moving, and perhaps into giving himself away.

Fourth, and perhaps most important, someone else who sees the news about this raid may decide to finger Saddam for us.

But the real question (Thanks, PJZ) is, what does this mean to the Nine Dwarves and their stealth antiwar campaign? We hand it over to James Taranto.

We hear from John Kerry:

Kerry said he voted for the resolution with the understanding that the administration would build an international coalition before attacking Saddam Hussein's forces.

"It seems quite clear to me that the president circumvented that process, shortchanged it and did not give full meaning to the words 'last resort,' " Kerry said in a 20-minute conference call with reporters.

"And it also depends on what the meaning of the word "is", is", he may have added.

And from Dick Gephardt:

"Foreign policy isn't a John Wayne movie, where we catch the bad guys, hoist a few cold ones, and then everything fades to black," Gephardt, who supported the war in Iraq, said in remarks prepared for delivery to the San Francisco Bar Association.

"Diplomacy matters. Burden-sharing matters. Follow-through matters. And yes, sustaining the peace is harder, more complex, and often costlier than winning the war itself," he said. "No matter the surge of momentary machismo--as gratifying as it may be for some--it's short-sighted and wrong to simply go it alone."

Word has it that the Hussein kids would have been killed faster with kindness.

And finally, Howard "the Duck" Dean:

"It's a victory for the Iraqi people," he told reporters, "but it doesn't have any effect on whether we should or shouldn't have had a war."

In comments covered by the Associated Press, the disgruntled Democrat added, "I think in general the ends do not justify the means."

Despite the good news for America, Dean tried to stick to his sour-grapes message, complaining that his Democratic rivals shouldn't have supported the war.

"Why is it that those in Congress have waited until now to question the intelligence?" he whined. "Why were they not asking these questions and seeking the truth nine months ago, before they voted to give the president blank-check authority to go to war?"

Look for the presidential approval rating to start bouncing back shortly.

Posted by Mitch at July 22, 2003 09:44 PM