Yeah, I think that's got to be it. I think they should have given the new PM Saddam's pistol -- just to underscore the point to the rest of the Iraqis. He had a pretty nice Browning High Power that he was fond of cranking in the air. (Think the next one ought to go in his medulla oblongata, but I'm not the government of Iraq.)
I think they did it more to screw over Zarqawi and his zombies than to mess over Brokaw and Jennings -- but since they're all running buddies with Lurch and Osama these days, it all kinda comes to the same thing, right?
The pistol he had in the spder hole is now in GWB's office.
There were several elaborate ceremonial pistols and AKs discovered in Uday's house.
A Muslim government, one dominated by Shiites, has the ability to cause Zarqawi BIG problems. Muslim troops can kill Fallujan Muslims with impunity as far as the "Muslim Street" is concerned