Pressure growing on IRA to make convincing move that war is over
It would have been entirely appropriate had the magazine negotiated a deal for exclusive rights to bring to the world the obscene luxury that Saddam enjoyed while his people wallowed in poverty.
As it was, we saw some marines gawking in awe at the 24-carat taps and showers and the gold-bordered mosaics in one of the palaces which had been stripped from floor-to-ceiling of furniture.
The undignified dismissal of the enormous statue has been hailed, symbolically, as the fall of the real thing. On the front page of yesterday's Daily Telegraph was a cartoon by Matt of Saddam's statue being toppled which caught the dilemma facing the coalition. The caption read: "Is that a real Saddam statue, or just a lookalike statue?"
It brings to mind the old ballad which goes: "Some say the divil is dead, the divil is dead, the divil is dead,
"Some say the divil is dead and buried in Killarney.
"Some say he rose again, Some say he rose again and joined the British Army ..."
Unfortunately, like the weapons of mass destruction, nobody knows where Saddam is squirming, or for that matter, where most of his henchmen are.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has accused Syria of helping senior members of Iraq's Ba'ath regime to escape, although he admitted American information was based on "scraps of evidence." Usually, one scrap is enough as any more tends to confuse the president.
Syria isn't yet on the list of "axis of evil" countries like Iran, Iraq and North Korea, but if Damascus can't see the writing on the wall, Mr Rumsfeld might very well make them honorary members of the club.
He is already muttering threats against Iran and North Korea, as well as Syria, advising them to take the "appropriate lesson" from the fall of the Iraqi regime and abandon their own pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. The fact that members of the regime weren't waiting in Baghdad for a makeover from Gen Tommy Franks, or whoever, poses a bit of a conundrum for the Brits, whatever about the Yanks.
Oddly enough, having aided and abetted the invasion of Iraq without too much notice taken of international law, Tony Blair is now rather concerned about such niceties. He told the Commons that because of the speed of the collapse in Saddam Hussein's authority in Baghdad, it made it difficult to know from whom the allies could accept Iraq's surrender.
It was not clear who was left of Saddam's higher ranks, but whoever it was had to have "proper authority" to make a final declaration that the war was over.
On that basis, the war will never be over because if the allies are waiting for somebody to declare themselves to have been one of Saddam's higher ranks, and therefore eligible for trial for crimes against humanity, they will have some wait.
An alternative, of course, would be to slow down the rest of the war in the hope that some high ranker or other shows up.
A slightly similar problem exists in Northern Ireland when, rather than if, the IRA move sufficiently to convince us that the war is really over for them.
Although Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair had to postpone plans to reveal their proposals for the peace process, pressure will be put on the IRA ultimately to issue a ground-breaking statement on its future and to carry out a verifiable and substantial act of disarmament.
No doubt the spectral "P Lynch" will be in front of the word processor soon, if not already, but the question of a "verifiable" act of disarmament is going to prove a difficulty, at least for the Unionists.
The Ulster Unionist Party is adamant that a "bold move" from the IRA would move the peace process forward, but it all comes down to the "quality" of an IRA move and the quality of an IRA statement.
"If it is big enough, then it's all systems go. If it's short of what's required, we're still in break down mode," said one spokesman, but the problem is they will probably have to accept the world of an international commission, and the de Chastelain one is the most appropriate.
That is the body authorised under the Good Friday Agreement, which David Trimble's party has signed up to, and they should agree that it be the arbiter, otherwise it is they who will jeopardise progress.
As he has said, this week is "the moment of truth" for the political process, but he would want to realise that truth is not a one-way street.
Yet, Mr Trimble is demanding that disarmament has to be both visible and transparent, and this is generally understood to mean that they want cameras present on the occasion, which just is not on.
He has also said that there had to be a system of sanctions or penalties for parties that break the Good Friday Agreement if there was to be public confidence in any restored institutions and that Sinn Féin should accept that.
There is no mention of such sanctions in the Agreement, and while Mr. Trimble refers to "parties," he really means Sinn Féin, who are totally against such a move, and rightly so.
Mr Trimble said he would be disappointed if the outstanding issues in the process were not resolved by yesterday, because the time is short for the successful restoration of the North's institutions.
The decision to postpone was because the government decided that not enough progress was made in negotiations that continued through the night on restoring the power-sharing institutions.
It's about time Mr. Trimble realised that those outstanding issues can be finalised, but not to his diktat in order to satisfy the dissident-laden Ulster Unionist Council which can determine his political future.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said his party needed to be reassured that there would be no further threats from unionists to bring down the power-sharing institutions.
When he was First Minister, David Trimble got the role mixed up with that of leader of the UUP. The latter job was elevated above that of First Minister, and in the future he would not want to get the two confused.
The First Minister represents all the people in Northern Ireland, not just those who elect him, or her.
Many myopic people now see Dubya's brief visit to Belfast as having been instrumental in delivering a final breakthrough, which should have been outlined yesterday, God help us, after talks between Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair and Mr Ahern last month failed to reach agreement with the pro-Agreement parties on a number of key issues. About the only positive thing Wubya did on that visit was to take the advice of his advisors and decline to meet Ian Paisley and his anti-Agreement DUP.
There are still controversial proposals by the governments to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly include allowing paramilitary "on-the-run" paramilitaries to be dealt with through a judicial commission, and the question of policing, to name one or two.
Obviously, the Taoiseach's dash to Downing Street would indicate that they are deeper than we thought, but then postponement is not new to Northern Ireland.
I hope Washington understands that it could still take another little while before the end result we all hope for will emerge.
Otherwise, Wubya might imagine there are weapons of mass destruction hidden in South Armagh. Or worse still that Saddam Hussein is there.
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