DECLARING VICTORY
Financial Times notes that the Coalition may have an unusual problem: figuring out when to declare victory:
The Napoleonic wars had Bonaparte at Waterloo. The US civil war had Robert E. Lee at Appomattox. The second world war had Hirohito and the USS Missouri.
But with US tanks already wandering the streets of Baghdad and Saddam Hussein possibly missing forever thanks to four 2,000 lb bombs dropped by a B-1 bomber, such a definitive, iconic ending to the current conflict in Iraq is unlikely to occur, military officials acknowledged this week.
All indications are it will be, to coin a phrase, days not weeks.
US marines on the runway of the Rashid airstrip in eastern Baghdad (Reuters/FT)
Reminds MB of the Vermont description of when summer is: one day in July.
The end will be declared when we say so, rather as an announcement that the objectives have been obtained; not as Victory over Iraq, but as Liberation of Iraq from its dictator.
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