Jim Oberg emails to point out that many people in the Saddam-on-the-street video are holding and waving weapons. It’s inconceivable that the real Saddam would allow people to be that close to him at all, let alone with automatic rifles. It would be too easy for someone to solve the Iraqi peoples’ problem with a single burst.

Though, I suppose they could have issued guns with empty clips.

Pfc. Lynch’s rescuers had no shovel, so they dug up the remains of the others with their bare hands.

The article also has some additional details on ther rescue:

“Jessica Lynch,” called out an American soldier, approaching her bed. “We are United States soldiers and we’re here to protect you and take you home.”

Peering from behind the sheet as he removed his helmet, she looked up and said, “I’m an American soldier, too.”

Here’s a “philosopher” who thinks that Bush is a new Nero, and that the US is a “pathocracy” and “theocracy.” Also, anyone who doesn’t see this as clearly as he does is nuts.

I think he’s projecting, myself.

British troops have discovered a warehouse filled with mutilated bodies in southern Iraq. It may be remains of victims of the 1991 Shia uprising.

I was flipping satellite channels tonight, and I ran across the supposedly classic “The Day The Earth Stood Still.” I’m kind of appalled that this was some of the best that the fifties had to offer for SF, because it seemed pretty schlocky to me, but that’s from someone speaking from the century of the Jetsons.

Anyway, it did occur to me that there were some interesting parallels between it and what we’re attempting to accomplish in the Middle East.

There’s a comments box below. Discuss.

The San Jose Mercury says that the Marines just fought their “biggest battle of the war.”

Results?

Three lost tanks, eight wounded.

Here comes a potentially interesting showdown, from a federalism standpoint.

Mark Steyn says that the war is pretty much over. But the key point is in the last graf:

But, for everyone other than media naysayers, it’s the Anglo-Aussie-American side who are the geniuses. Rumsfeld’s view that one shouldn’t do it with once-a-decade force, but with a lighter, faster touch has been vindicated, with interesting implications for other members of the axis of evil and its reserve league.

Yup. One of the benefits of doing this was to show that Afghanistan wasn’t a fluke–we can pretty much take on any country we want, at least one that’s being run by thugs, and has no popular support, at relatively little cost.

Mr. Assad, Mr. Arafat, mullahs in Iran, Kim Jung Il, maybe even Mr. Mugabe, all take note.

There’s a new sheriff in town…

Early missile defense system concepts were nuclear, because it was assumed that was the only way to ensure that a payload delivered to the right neighborhood would take out the missile. This would have resulted in so much collateral damage that it was abandoned early on, and gave a bad name to the concept of defense against missiles per se.

Thus, it was a breakthrough in missile defense when we developed (and continue to improve) the capability to guide projectiles with precision. This allows us to not only not use nuclear explosions, but to get away without using explosives at all. The high speed of the interceptor provides it with sufficient kinetic energy to kill the target from the collision alone.

This has apparently had a nice spinoff for a war in which we’re trying to minimize collateral damage. I don’t know if we’re doing this, but the Brits have come up with a bomb with no explosives. It’s basically just a thousand pounds of concrete which, when dropped from a height to a precise target (using the same smart guidance techniques as more conventional munitions), can do a lot of damage, but without having to explode. It’s like something that ACME might manufacture, except it really really works.

The terminal velocity on one of these things would be several hundred miles per hour, I’d guess, given the density. I wouldn’t want to be in a tank in a narrow city street when one of these things falls on it, but it’s quite possible that one could be standing next to it when it occurred, and not be injured, or even have overpressure on the eardrums. But you definitely don’t want to try to fair catch it.

Saves money, saves lives. Cool.

So we may be able to use such weapons quite surgically, even within a city. We may find out in the next few hours.

Mikhail Gorbachev says we must “end this bloodbath” in Iraq.

Actually, Mickey, that’s exactly what we’re doing–ending a multi-decade bloodbath. Funny, though, I don’t ever recall hearing calls from you to Saddam to end any bloodbaths. Maybe I just missed them?