Uday/Qusay fallout

Marian Wilkinson of the Sydney Morning Herald reports that the "Pentagon and the White House are bracing for an upsurge in retaliatory attacks in Iraq following the assault by United States troops that killed Saddam Hussein's sons."

Wilkinson's report also features a few lines from Peter Bouckaert, a researcher for Human Right Watch:

"They were among the two most feared people in Iraq," he said.

"They were not just the people who gave the orders, they were directly implicated in a lot of the killings.

"When I was in Baghdad, people talked more often about the personal involvement of Uday and Qusay in killings than they talked about Saddam, who was a ghost figure for many Iraqis."

But Mr Bouckaert said it was unfortunate that the sons would not be put on trial. "It's a pity they were killed in this way and escaped the day they had to face the Iraqi people for the crimes they committed against them."

The Bush administration doesn't believe in trials, though. Instead, they plaster images of the two dead sons across available media (in clear violation of the Geneva conventions, but no matter), hoping that this will convince the resistance in Iraq to capitulate to the occupying forces.

Update: Retaliatory attacks? Geez. This was quick: "Three American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division -- the squad involved in the deadly raid on Uday and Qusay Hussein -- were killed Thursday when they came under attack from small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in northern Iraq," reports Fox News.