A key Iraqi opposition leader says he has information that Saddam Hussein survived an airstrike in Baghdad and escaped from the capital with at least one of his sons.

However, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he did not know whether Saddam was dead or alive.

“He’s either dead, or he’s incapacitated, or he’s healthy and cowering in some tunnel someplace trying to avoid being caught. What else can one say?” Rumsfeld said. CNN

Rumsfeld has made several comments about Saddam’s cowardice that are about as mature as the schoolyard taunts I remember from childhood. Pretty disingenuous considering this country’s leaders’ lack of military service themselves and how far they are from harm’s way in the prosecution of the attack on Iraq. In fact, Rumsfeld’s gibes could be considered an insult to our own troops’ bravery. (I mean, Jessica Lynch might be able to jeer at Saddam for cowering in hiding, but Donald Rumsfeld??)

Could there be a relationship (could there not??) between the above news item and this? MOAB Bomb Moved to Iraq War Region:

Military officials hoped the MOAB would create such a huge blast that it would rattle Iraqi troops and pressure them into surrendering or not even fighting.

Now that Iraqi troops have surrendered in large numbers, it was unclear what the possible targets might be. CNN

Or is it just that the boys with their toys will be damned if they’ll let this little escapade in Iraq end without the chance of a whizz-bang full-scale ejaculation?