The capture of Saddam vindicates in one sense the Bush strategy of patience-cum-persistence. Perhaps equally to the point, it vindicates the understanding that sometimes you do what you have to do. This is what power is about in the end.
I should have said "responsible power." There is a vital distinction here. Power is good, depending on the cause in which it is employed. Hitler used his power for unprecedented evil. Countervailing power and force were necessary to make him stop.
So with Saddam Hussein, if in different degree. Forbearance we had tried already. It had failed. We fell back on military force -- "the last argument of kings" (ultima ratio regionis), as the inscription on French cannons noted, in an age when the French owned up publicly to what they knew instinctively.
Again, military force -- as a last resort -- succeeded. The cheering Iraqi reporters at the Sunday morning press conference tipped us to just how well we had succeeded. Nationwide dancing and celebrating followed throughout most of Iraq. Suddenly, "Uncle Sam, Imperialist" looked plausible as a human benefactor. You might not have thought it up to then, had you paid undue attention to certain media and certain politicians.
Let us give George Bush, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and other much-satirized military brains and brass the immense acclaim they are due, not just for military prowess but for moral courage. It takes moral courage to stay the course when your ideological opposites are damning you as power-happy. And if you do stay the rough and rugged course? Eventually, as we are reminded, you find that snake hole.