The White House today declared that Saddam Hussein's "regime isgone," though looting continued in some Iraqi cities and Saddam'shometown of Tikrit is still a holdout.
President Bush said he doesn't know whether Saddam Hussein is deador alive but "I know he's no longer in power."
However, when asked about when victory might be declared, hedemurred.
"I want to hear our commanders say we have achieved the clearobjectives that we have set out. That's when we will say this isover," Bush told reporters after visiting wounded servicemen andwomen in two military hospitals near Washington.
He said that Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S.-led forces inthe Persian Gulf, would make the final call on when the war was over.
"The war will end when Tommy Franks says we have achieved ourobjectives," Bush said.
Those objectives included taking on the remaining soldiers alliedwith Saddam and searching for weapons of mass destruction, thepresident said.
Bush also said he did not have any new information on thewhereabouts of American POWs in Iraq. "I pray they are alive, becauseif they are, we'll find them," he said.
Freedom 'untidy'
Today, Iraqi forces surrendered in Mosul, Iraq's third-largestcity, ceding control of northern Iraq's oil fields. Mosul, a city of600,000, descended into anarchy, with widespread theft, arson andshootings.
Baghdad's two most prestigious hotels were afire and aid workerssaid hospitals were in "catastrophic" conditions as looters stolemedicines, stethoscopes, air conditioners, even ambulances, AgenceFrance-Presse reported.
Britain's international development minister, Clare Short,suggested that U.S. forces weren't doing enough to restore order inBaghdad. "There must be a much bigger effort to stop all this lootingand violence," she told BBC radio.
However, a spokesman for British forces in Iraq, Group Capt. AlLockwood, said trying to crack down on looters too quickly couldprove unwise.
"The last thing that we want is to be seen to be oppressing themwhen they're just having their first taste of freedom," he said.
Franks ordered U.S. troops not to use deadly force to preventlooting.
In Washington, officials said the looting was regrettable butportrayed it as the result of an oppressed people suddenly freed.
"Freedom is untidy," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said,describing the current disorder a "transition period." Militaryofficials hope to turn enforcement of laws over to newly formedpolice agencies soon, he said.
Iraqis took the situation into their own hands in some places:shopkeepers in central Baghdad today opened fire on looters for thefirst time, AFP reported.
In one Baghdad neighborhood, residents armed themselves withrifles, set up roadblocks and checked passing cars for stolen goods.Any plunder was confiscated, and people in the cars were taken outand beaten and tossed in an alley.
In another area of Baghdad, loudspeakers blared appeals fromMuslim clerics to stop looting and destroying the city. Some heededthe clerics' calls and brought stolen goods to mosques forsafekeeping.
The International Committee of the Red Cross urged the U.S.- ledcoalition to restore law and order and protect "essential facilities"in Iraq, including Baghdad's 33 hospitals, some of which have beenransacked.
Rumsfeld acknowledged the disorder but suggested that the levelwas being exaggerated by the the television images being repeated.
Wanted cards
At a Central Command news briefing, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooksdisplayed a deck of cards depicting the 55 most-wanted regimeleaders.
The cards have been distributed to coalition troops to help themidentify those still at large, although some may already be dead, hesaid.
The regime leaders are to be "pursued, killed or captured," Brookssaid.
As he has done throughout the three-week war, Bush will spend theweekend at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
In Tikrit, coalition forces destroyed five camouflaged, smallplanes they discovered north of of the city that could have been usedto allow regime leaders to escape or to deliver weapons of massdestruction, officials said today.
U.S. warplanes have been attacking Tikrit and commanders saythey're not sure how strong its defense will be. Members of thedictator's personal militia and elements of the elite SpecialRepublican Guard may be among the forces there.
There's been speculation regime fugitives might be in Tikrit.
French change
The French appear to have undergone an attitude adjustment aboutthe U.S.-led war.
No one is cheering the U.S. government, but there's support forthe fall of Saddam and the swift manner in which it was accomplished.
"The Americans have won the war--in only three weeks," Le Figaronewspaper wrote in an editorial. "It is a victory for George Bush."
The French people now wonder whether their country was right tooppose the war so staunchly.
"The French are discovering the truth--that the coalition wasefficient," said Francois Gere, director of the Paris-basedDiplomatic and Defense Institute.
Contributing: Sun-Times wires
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