-- Six weeks after the invasion of Iraq, Pentagon officials are quietly beginning to acknowledge that their failure to find Saddam Hussein may be proof that the Iraqi leader never existed.
"We hate to admit it," said one unnamed official, "One of our main reasons for going in there was regime change. You know...overthrow a brutal dictator who tortured his own people. But at this point, we're not sure there ever was a Saddam Hussein. After all, if we don't have him dead or alive...who's to say?"
The military official said that the statues, murals and videos of Saddam Hussein are "circumstantial evidence which don't prove anything."
"I try to look on the bright side," he added. "Maybe we'll luck out and find a few chemical weapons so the war won't have been a total waste."
Experts agree that evidence of actual atrocities against Iraqis lacks the news value that potential atrocities against Westerners would have.
;-)