The Laughing Wolf

Uday and Brother Found?

Get to the TVs and the good news blogs folks, as the stories and speculations are flying thick. Seems a raid last night turned into a firefight, and guess who may have been in the middle of it. Too soon to know yet, not enough data, but at the least some of the problem makers have gone to their reward. Maybe two top trouble makers... Stay tuned

UPDATE: Well, a few hours have passed and there is more information coming out. Subject to the fog of war and all the related issues, it is starting to firm up a bit.

They think that two of the bodies are that of Uday and Qusay, and a third is that of Qusay's teenage son. The latter two are likely the most important in many respects, since Uday did not have nearly as much power as he did psychopathy. Qusay, on the other hand, enjoyed is father's favor, was head of the Republican Guard, and had other important posts and duties.

The White House is being smart on this, and apparently will not say anything or allow anything to be said on the record until DNA and other forensics can be run. I imagine that they will do a full forensics workup including dental, X-rays, DNA, and any other tests they can think of to do. It still will not be enough to convince some, here or there, but if done right it will work for most thinking people.

Meantime, there is a lot of evidence that says there was something of importance there. You don't have the firepower described unless you have something of high value in the place. Surely not the firepower to stop and hold Task Force 20 and/or the 101st. Someone obviously got a bit fed up and used TOWs and other resources to breech the compound so troops could get in, and then used heavy fiepower as needed. The location, the owner, and other factors also add to the idea that someone or something of value was there.

For now, we wait as doing things right takes time. I sincerely hope that they do things by the book from a scientific as well as a SOP point of view, so that no one can pick at it later. Not that it will stop some people, especially if they see a political advantage, but it does make it easier to rebut them.

UPDATE 2: CENTCOM says that it was indeed them, even though the DNA and related work is not yet done. I do hope this is true, but will feel better when full forensics can back up the apparent eyewitness identifications.