Badda bing, badda BOOM.
It had to come to this. At today's Pentagon briefing, a Sky News reporter asked Big Dog if the war had gone so easily that America would be regarded as a bully for hitting Iraq so hard. This less than a week after everyone was pounding him about raising expectations and getting us into a quagmire.

We may have just blown up the quagmire. The press is hyperventilating this evening about an air strike that may have gotten Saddam, and one or both of his sons, at a residential compound late tonight. If true, it would be some excellent news indeed. Intelligence information was deemed good enough to send a B-1 Lancer to drop four GBU-31s on a particular "target of opportunity" to kill them. The GBU-31 is a variant of the global positioning satellite -guided "JDAM" bomb. It's a 2,000-pound dumb bomb fitted with a penetrator warhead and the JDAM GPS-guidance kit. Dropping four of these on any one target is going to do more damage than can be sorted out any time soon. If Saddam and his homicidal sons were there, we'll likely not even know for weeks or months. Or ever. Bombs that powerful--if they penetrated, and if the targets were there--won't leave enough DNA on the walls to scrape off to prove he's dead. Come to think of it, they won't leave any walls. As Tony Soprano might say, "badda bing, badda BOOM."

The bunker we hit tonight was apparently known to us before, which accounts for the use of the B-1 and the JDAM precision munitions. The GPS mensurated coordinates let you put all four of those bombs right on the money. If we hit the bull’s eye, maybe this will end, more quickly than any had reason to expect. Let's hope.

If Saddam was nailed, the bad guy message traffic will be different. What little command structure is left--and there wasn't much as of this afternoon--will disappear. This could--and should--result in the surrender of remaining Republican Guard and other regular army units. We will see, and very soon.

Let's hope he is dead, but even that may not end it. The imported terrorists--Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Ansar al-Islam and so many others--will probably keep fighting. They came to fight not for Saddam, but against democracy. But they aren't supported by the Iraqis, and they can't last without local support. So long as they choose martyrdom, we'll oblige.

Brigadier General Walid Hamid al-Nasseri--if he's alive--will be counting himself lucky today. Al-Nasseri was the commander of the Special Republican Guard until about last November when he was relieved. The Special Republican Guard--a unit of about 25,000 troops--was the only Republican Guard unit allowed to enter Baghdad under Saddam's regime. Its duties were very specific. First, the SRG was responsible for the concealment--and use--of weapons of mass destruction. Second, it was responsible for guarding Saddam's many palaces. Not great jobs these days.

Al-Nasseri's replacement, whose name I do not know, was a lot less lucky. For starters, either he or his chief of staff was spotted today trying to call fire down on a unit of the U.S. Marines near the Tigris River. The spotter was killed, as were a great number of others trying to stop the Marine advance. The sandstorms are kicking up again in Iraq, but the Marines are still coming.

From his vantage point on the east bank of the Tigris, across from Saddam City, Oliver North described the action the Marines completed in their sweep through the Salman Pak terrorist training camp south of Baghdad last weekend. According to Ollie's report, terrorists from Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Afghanistan joined Iraqis and members of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad in fighting the Marines. Many were killed in the fight. But now, the main resistance to our forces in Baghdad is from these terrorists.

Ollie told me that about three-quarters of Baghdad is in our hands now, but there are still pockets of heavy resistance. British aircraft overhead drew a whole bunch of SA-7 shots (shoulder-fired Soviet version of the Stinger) as well as heavy fire from ZSU-23-4s. (The ZSU-23-4 is a radar-guided, self-propelled and quad-mounted 23mm automatic antiaircraft cannon. It's very bad news.) Let's hope the fast-movers took them out, because helos can't survive where the ZSUs are.

Our troops are bunked down in two of Saddam's palaces in Baghdad tonight. The Army is in Baghdad center, and isn't about to leave. Their worries are reduced not just by the death of Chemical Ali but also by the discovery of what appears to be a large stockpile of chemical weapons near Hindayah, south of Baghdad. Even more important may be the unconfirmed report of the discovery of missiles loaded with chemical weapons. Big Dog is playing down these reports, because many times the sensors give false positives when testing for chemical weapons. But it seems awfully unlikely that Saddam had pesticides loaded in missile warheads.

And to where Saddam is, no one has the answer. It seems likely that if he's still alive he is in his palace in the northern city of Tikrit. We cut the road from Baghdad to Tikrit today, so if he or any of his cronies are still in Baghdad, they'll have to walk out.

Right now, none of the Baathists should be trying to walk out of anywhere. The populace of Baghdad, Nasiriyah and Basra--and reportedly in Mosul in the north--have risen and are taking their personal vengeance on any of Saddam's thugs left in town. We may not be able to stop it. I'm trying to think of a reason we should try. When Nikolai Ceaucescu, Romania's dictator, was overthrown many of his generals went down with him. They had their chance, just like Saddam's bunch did, to surrender and avoid hanging, or worse. Thirty years of oppression by the Baathists will fuel a lot of payback. At dawn, we can take stock again.

Victory is not ours yet, and may not be ours to proclaim. I asked our listeners today when we will be able to say we've won. Many thought that when Saddam's body is hanging from a Baghdad telephone pole, we can say it's over. Some said it's not for us to proclaim. When the Iraqis choose their new government, and by election choose a new president, it's time to go home. But not before.

I think they're probably right. If only the Iraqis get the chance. Today, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan again proclaimed the necessity of U.N. control over rebuilding of Iraq and creation of its new government. Without U.N. involvement, he said, the new Iraqi government will lack legitimacy. I finally figured out who Annan reminds me of. In Blazing Saddles, one of the roles Mel Brooks kept for himself was Gov. LePetomain. In one scene, the Gov looked around his roomful of cronies and worried aloud about their latest scheme. "If this doesn't work," he shouted, "we all may lose our phoney baloney jobs." If I closed my eyes and listened, I'd swear it was Kofi Annan talking. In a way, it was.

Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Saddam's propaganda minister, is the most visible symbol of the power of the crumbling regime. But as long as he strolls around Baghdad, followed by a press corps of his own, the world will believe that Saddam's regime is still functioning, and the Iraqi people will be unsure that their liberation is at hand. It amazes me to see this man running free, and running his mouth. Never mind that his lies must seem obvious to any who listen. He is wearing the uniform of Saddam's regime, serving in Saddam's army, and that makes him a legitimate target. The sun shouldn't set again before we send a sergeant and two lance corporals to take him prisoner.

The Brits report that Chemical Ali--Gen. Ali Hassan al-Majid--is dead after an attack on Baath party headquarters in Basra. He was known as Chemical Ali because of the chemical weapons attack he commanded in the Kurdish city of Halabjah in 1988 which killed thousands. His death is a major blow to the regime, and should be broadcast widely.

Another Iraqi general has been captured in Basra, and is apparently cooperating with the Brits. His family had been kept hostage by the regime, but they are now free as well. The Brits are offering him immunity from prosecution if he continues to cooperate. As well they should. If his defection is confirmed, it should be used as a weapon in our own information campaign, and is sure to be a blow to the regime. Keep this guy and his family safe. He may be worth quite a lot. As are the people, weapons, and supplies that can now get into Baghdad directly.

Yesterday, the first C-130 Hercules landed at Baghdad international. Opening that airport to military operations is a tremendous aid to our forces. Repairs to the runways continue, and if they go as I believe, we should be able then to bring in the heavies--C-17s and even C-5As--which can carry everything a commander needs, including heavy M1A1 tanks. Our forces are already operating in downtown Baghdad. Though the city is far from taken--hundreds of fedayeen and Iraqi troops are being spotted scurrying around each night, and engagements with them continue--we are well on the way to having the job done there.

Which is why the U.N. is meeting today, to instruct us on how the new, free Iraq should be its property. The French and Russians are quite desperate to regain control of the Iraqi oil fields they had under contract with Saddam. We should do everything we can to prevent that. Iraqi oil should pay for rebuilding Iraq, and also for some of the costs we incurred in the campaign. This will, I hope, be the desire of the new Iraqi government. The U.N. has proved its irrelevance. It is now up to us to enforce it.

When the U.N. debate begins, we should raise a point of order. At the Baghdad airport, we discovered a supply of surface to air missiles. They are Rolands, a short-range anti-aircraft missile is produced in only one place: France. A company called Euromissile makes Roland. I think we should ask the French how many of these were sold to Saddam, when they sold them, and what else they sold him. We should veto any--I repeat any--Security Council resolutions on any subject including the time of day until the Frogs answer to our satisfaction.

As I wrote earlier, one of the units the Brits sent in to take Basra was the Scots Black Watch. No matter how thick the fighting, they must have their ceremony. According to today's Scotsman, and Edinburgh paper, "Lieutenant William Colquhoun had unpacked his bagpipes and sat on the turret of his Warrior waiting for the order to advance. As the sun attempted to poke through smoke rolling lazily across desolate marshland stretching away on either side of the bridge, wading birds were picking their way among the long grasses. As he began to play, the sound of "Scotland the Brave" drifted across the bridge towards the city, competing with the clatter of rotor blades as four Cobra helicopters raced in to join the attack." You just gotta love these guys.