As I'm sure everybody knows by now, the Allies are moving into Baghdad after defeating the Republican Guard to the south of the city. It's not all over yet, but it's getting a lot closer to the end. You have to figure that Saddam's units have all been hit hard by bombing, that they've all suffered losses, that they're running out of supplies, and they haven't got much left. You also have to figure that Saddam's henchmen are not going to go down easily, since they know the best thing that could happen to them is fall into American hands and then serve life in Marion with Noriega and the Unabomber. That's their best-case scenario now, and it's not too appealing. Their worst-case scenario involves a mob, a rope, and a lamppost, and it's even less appealing. So some very nasty things are going to happen in Baghdad very soon. I'm glad I'm not there. I think if I were I'd stay home and stay put. I figure that the chances of being impressed into military service if I stayed home are lower than the chances of something bad happening to my family and me if we hit the road. You have to assume they're not going to try to force the women into combat, especially not my 78-year-old mother-in-law, if they search the house. So we stay put, stay inside, lock the doors--we'd have stocked up on food and stuff--and wait for the Allies. And hope that no missiles go astray in the meantime. The chances of that are pretty low, since Baghdad's a big place and most people live well away from the areas that have been bombed so far. But let me tell you, if I were a Baghdadi right now, I'd be a lot happier if one of the things I had around the house was a gun in order to be able to go down fighting in case the Fedayeen wanted to hang me as a shirker, like the SS did to non-combatant men in Berlin.