Anti-Climacus

TODAY'S CLOSING HAPPINESS: From Best of the Web, again:

Scenes From the Liberation
"British troops are said to be firing on Basra in support of a 'popular uprising' against Saddam Hussein's troops by the people of Iraq's second city," ITV News reports:

Thousands of people took to the streets of the key strategic city in the early evening and began rampaging through areas heavily populated by known sympathisers of the country's regime.

By nightfall dozens of buildings were on fire as the predominantly Shia Muslims of the south took their revenge after years of domination by Saddam Hussein's Sunni Muslim ruling Ba'ath party.

Saddam's forces fired mortars at civilians, ITV reports, which "gave the troops of the 7th Armoured Brigade--the famous Desert Rats--the perfect opportunity to move into the city and take control of a battleground whose capture is vital to the allies."

The Times of London, meanwhile, reports from northern Iraq, where Kurds watching allied bombing "jeered and clapped, delighted that the war had come at last to the front line in northern Iraq":

"I am so happy," Ismail Qadir, 32, a refugee from Kirkuk, said. "If this brings the end of Saddam Hussein's regime even one minute closer, it is great news for us all."

In the town's Communist party headquarters, fighters ran from their barrack rooms, grabbing assault rifles and magazines as their building's windows rattled and shattered.

"It's what we want, but we need more of," Taha Muhammad Qarim, the secretariat leader, said. "The Americans should give it to the Iraqis like this three times a day and then we might see things change."

Even the commies are on our side. This does recall the battle against Hitler, doesn't it?