I'd have expected that the expressions of rejoicing at the death of Saddam's sons would have been accompanied by at least a token expression of regret at the death of his fourteen-year-old grandson Mustafa. (Maybe Bush and Blair did express regret, and it's been cut out of the media reports. Maybe.)

This was not a successful outcome. Once they were trapped in the house there was no way out, and it should have been possible to capture them - after all there weren't any hostages involved to complicate the process of the house siege.

It is probabaly true that this could encourage people who might have been frightened of Saddam coming back to power, for example through some kind of deal with the occupiers. That might seem a ridiculous idea to us, but I'm sure people in Iraq remember what happened in 1992.

However this could in fact have some unfortunate consequences. One might be could be that people who don't like Saddam, but don't like the occupying forces either, will feel freer to resort to violence against the foreign troops.

And I suspect that the story of young Mustafa, fighting on after his father and uncle were dead, and, by reason of his age, without any responsibility for what his family had done to Iraq, could be very dangerous indeed. It could act as a bridge between Saddam loyalists and Sadddam opponents. More especially if Saddam gets killed next in some similar operation. Much more of a threat dead than alve.