Even for those of us who opposed, and continue to oppose, the war in Iraq, it's impossible not to take some pleasure at the sight of the Butcher of Baghdad paraded in front of the cameras. Looking like Karl Marx after a few too many, this is an ignominious end for a man who once terrified millions.

The hawks have been cock-a-hoop over Saddam's capture. I say let them have their day in the sun. It's been nothing but bad news for them for the past few months. Each good day is followed by dozens of bad ones. Let them savour the moment. A losing side appreciates the occassional victory far more than a winning one. BUt when the smug rhetoric of Bush, Blair, Cheney etc. has died down their basic problem for them will remain. Where are the WMD? Where are they!?

The capture of Saddam changes nothing when it comes to the morality of this war. Let's be clear about this (and not engage in what Dubya might call "revisionism") this war was fought because, the hawks alleged, Saddam had WMD. Not programmes, not scientific know-how, not nasty intentions; WMD, actual weapons. More than 200 days since the fall of Baghdad and NONE have been found. Some of the claims used to scare people into support for the war have proven to be bare-faced lies. Niger, anyone? How about 45 minutes? How many more of these claims made at the start of the year will turn out to be untrue?

Viewed in this context the capture of Saddam does not make this war any more defensible. This war was not justified by Saddam's atrocities in the past but by the ones which, we were told, he could commit in the future. Remember that.