It's not the end yet, but it's certainly the beginning of the end of the Three Week Quagmire. Since I got home from work I've been going through the TV channels here, watching BBC domestic news and German news and Dutch news. Today's events are unspinnable; not even these notoriously anti-American outlets have been able to undo the potency of the images coming out of Baghdad. They tried, with a reporter for the German ZDF station remarking that the cheer that went up when the Marines helped take down the Saddam statue was muted. Well, he tried. He failed. Dutch TV reported that Iraqis living in exile here are ecstatic. One of the German channels showed baffled and depserate reactions on the streets of Cairo.

It's glorious to see Iraqis finally liberated and celebrating. It wasn't the main reason for this war, but it's a fantastic sight nonetheless. With relatively quick collapse of Saddam's regime under Allied assault is a blessing, and a testament to the professionalism of the British and American forces. Once again the doubters have been proved wrong. The ghost of Vietnam had been laid to rest some time ago for most Americans. The ghosts that remain from that era are the Hippies Who Never Grew Up, who dress in rhetorical Halloween ghost costumes. But they're the only ones who believe that their ghost costumes are the same as real ghosts, cause they sure ain't fooling anyone else.

Now that we do appear to have a quick victory in sight (there's still a lot of ground to cover, especially Tikrit), we'll soon get the next round of criticism. Having failed with the Quagmire Opening and the Arab Street Maneuver, the next round of critcism from America-haters will be to belittle the achievement. "With the enormous superiority of American technology and Corporate Dollar$, no wonder that the poor, brave Iraqi defenders were routed. They never had any chance. It's just further proof of the Great Danger that America poses, and just how evil America really is. It's not much of an achievement by the world's hyperpower to defeat a third-world country." I also predict that this criticism will be voiced by those who just two weeks ago were proclaiming Quagmire. Once you make intellectual dishonesty a habit, the need for consistency dimishes dramatically. From predicting horrible defeat for the US to claiming that a US victory was a foregone conclusion: it's going to happen.

But that is an issue for later. Tonight, let us rejoice with the Iraqi people.