What Hole Did He Crawl Out Of?

Sunday's papers were filled with stories, like Max Boot (Council of Foreign Relations) in the L.A. Times, talking about how the Bush Administration's many foreign policy mistakes left one wondering what happended to the vaunted Republican "A Team." All-Stars of Team Bush Fall Flat in Iraq.

But with the capture of Saddam Hussein announced just a few hours later -- actually, 7:00 a.m. Eastern time, if one was awake -- the political talk has suddenly all shifted to war crimes trials, crimes against humanity and the like.

Personally, all of this pales in comparison to the wonderful irony surrounding Saddam's capture. Cowering in a hole in the ground, hardly big enough to lie down in, with a pistol and Kalashnikov rifle, Hussein managed not a single shot of resistance. Not struggle at all. A haggard, tired and weak old man lamely raising his arms and saying he was "ready to negotiate." Like all of them going back to Napoleon and Hitler, this dictator too proved in the final analysis to be a small man, a coward at heart, concerned more with saving his own skin than fighting. These kinds of men talk big when they're carrying big sticks, but their characters are puny. If only their kind did not so often defile the pages of history.

 Posted by glenn