Saddam: Dead or alive (?)

Saddam: Dead or alive (?)
: Since we have no idea whether Saddam is dead or alive, I think it’s time for news reports to couch couch it.

The NY Times reported today, as if they knew it happened, that “President Saddam Hussein awarded the Iraqi soldier [who killed four U.S. soldiers with a suicide bomb] two posthomous medals.”

Well, they sure didn’t see Saddam do it. They didn’t hear him do it. They accepted an Iraqi report that said he did it. And that’s what the NY Times should say.

For Saddam’s fate is now an issue. Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chief Richard Meyers spent the weekend on PundiTV taunting Saddam in a game of come-out-come-out-wherever-you-are (here’s the official Pentagon version of the news). They’re trying to get a message to the Iraqis that unless we see him, how do you know he’s there? And that’s a good question. It is a question.

: Update: Even his own ambaddador couches. [via Instapundit]