Another good column from Victor Davis Hanson, including a preview of a news conference to come:

Secretary Rumsfeld: I will take your questions now.



CBS: Mr. Secretary! Mr. Secretary! Aren't you worried about reports that Apache helicopters unnecessarily strafed hundreds of retreating Republican Guard battalions that were in essence trying to surrender?

And the follow up, sir: Isn't it true that literally thousands of Republican Guard regiments were allowed to flee unmolested into Syria — and now amount to a potentially dangerous counterrevolutionary force right on the border of a liberated Iraq?

NBC: Secretary Rumsfeld. In retrospect, was playing hardball with the Turks and not paying the billions a mistake — one that cost us unneeded casualties by fighting a one-front war and allowing them an open hand in Kurdistan?

And a point of clarification too: While it looks like a "win" here in Iraq, aren't you worried that the United States has simply paid too much money in debt relief to countries in the region — specifically Turkey — to buy their allegiance without monitoring them as they unilaterally go into Iraq?

BBC: Point of clarification, please, Mr. Secretary: Had the F-17s only hit the electrical grid on the first night of bombing, Saddam's final orders would not have been carried out and dozens of Allied soldiers would have been saved. True?