There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics
To convince the world, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld released pictures of the bodies of Saddam Hussein's sons to prove they are dead.
US Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of the Coalition's ground forces, said dental records had shown a 90% match in the case of Uday Hussein, although he stressed that damage to his teeth meant a 100% match was impossible.
It would have been far easier to convince us had the Americans managed to arrest the two lads and present them to the world, as well as getting the lowdown on where their daddy is.
In the event, the Americans made sure there was no live evidence left in the house in Mosul where the sons were, according to a tip-off they said they got.
With their characteristically subtle approach, 200 troops were deployed to the house, accompanied by helicopter gunships, armoured vehicles and God only knows what else kind of firepower.
Nobody was getting out of that house alive and they did not, including a 14-year-old boy, believed to have been Qusay's son, and a bodyguard.
Despite that fact that Lt Gen Sanchez declared they had no doubts that the bodies are those of the two sons, it really seems impossible to believe that by the time the 200 troops, helicopter gunships and the armoured vehicles were finished with their mass destruction of the house that there was anything left to be photographed.
The Iraqi who tipped off the US military stands to gain at least part of two bounties each worth $15m which Washington placed on the heads of Uday and Qusay.
He's on dead cert, which means he can't lose. If his information is right, he gets the money, and if he's wrong the Yanks will still have to give him the bounty, or else admit that they were wrong once again.
He won't be able to enjoy it for a while, though, if ever. At the moment he's in "protective custody" in Iraq, and he's likely to stay there for quite a while if he has any sense.
There is deep scepticism about the triumphalist announcement by the Americans, none more so than in Iraq, and not without good reason.
The fact that Saddam Hussein is broadcasting messages about insurrection would not do much for their confidence either, no matter how many times the Americans say the regime is dead and gone.
Understandably, the news of the "deaths" was a godsend to US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who have been under pressure over the failure of the Coalition forces to find any trace of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which was their justification for invading the country.
Even though the two sons were numbers two and three on America's 55-strong 'most wanted Iraqis' list for good reason, both the president and the prime minister might have been more statesmanlike in their responses to the news, especially since a young boy was also killed.
It made me a little uneasy to see the gloating that greeted the killings.
Mr Blair did himself no favours, either, by being seen on television doing a duet with Cherie of 'When I'm Sixty-four', or some other Beatles number, during their trip to China. While they regaled the world with their musical effort, the widow of Dr David Kelly, who was driven to suicide by Blair's government, was making arrangements for his funeral.
WITH Saddam Hussein still at large, it's hardly unreasonable that Iraqis need concrete proof - not just American propaganda - that the former ruling family will not reappear. They learned that lesson once before.
Another lesson learned is that spin-doctoring is too often represented as the truth, and that was graphically illustrated when President Bush referred to claims that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa in his State of the Union speech last January.
The British Government had alleged that Saddam Hussein's regime had tried to buy uranium for nuclear weapons from the West African state of Niger.
The UN later said that documents which backed the claims were forgeries.
To quote Mark Twain once again: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Why that should bring to mind our own government, I don't know.
Tánaiste Mary Harney took exception to a recent editorial in this newspaper because she said it was "gloom-laden" and was subsequently afforded half a page to reply.
Her message, largely, was that there is light at the end of the tunnel which begs the question: how long is the tunnel? I got the distinct impression from her polemic that the light will begin to appear will in time for the next general election in 2007.
By the time that comes round, she believes, the government will be able to present a very credible record to the people on the jobs front.
First of all, to use the word 'credible' in the same sentence as the present government, is a gross abuse of the English language. They're not even closely related.
In this instance employment does she mean that a job will be lost only every 20 minutes instead of every quarter of an hour, as happens at the moment? Or maybe she still believes, as she stated during the Hugh O'Flaherty controversy, that the electorate won't remember, or can't remember anything that happened three months previously.
Maybe she can explain how the economy is sound to the hundreds of people who have already lost their jobs and those hundreds who will lose their jobs every week into the foreseeable future.
Losing their jobs is something they won't forget after three months and no effort on the Tánaiste's part to induce blanket amnesia, will make them.
According to the Central Bank yesterday, in 2004 the economy will expand by 3.5%, but there is worse news to come on the jobs front in what has already been a difficult year, with over 2,400 job losses since June.
It expects a rise in the rate of unemployment to 5.25%.
But roll on the next general election. The country will be transformed economically until the election is over.
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