To the Point

Governing Post-War Iraq

With Marines now in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says US and British forces now control most of Iraq. Iraqis themselves have begun to impose civil order, including gun-bearing Shiite Muslim clerics in the capital of Baghdad, and Iraqi exiles are preparing to meet to discuss their country's government. Can the US alone construct a new system to govern a defeated Arab country or will it need the UN to provide international legitimacy? We hear from some of the people who want to take over Iraq, including leaders of the Iraqi National Congress and the Iraq National Group, an advisor to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Middle East expert Fawaz Gerges. Making News: Tikrit Falls to US Forces US Marines have occupied Saddam Hussein-s hometown, including a presidential palace. Time magazine correspondent Paul Quinn-Judge, who is in Tikrit, says American troops were met by virtually no local resistance since the elite units of the Republican Guard appear to have dissolved days ago. He calls the action there more like "military closure" than a major battle. Reporter's Notebook: Tyranny in Cuba In Cuba, a repressive government has cracked down on peaceful dissenters with show trials that have a decidedly Stalinist look. Three people have been executed for trying to hijack a boat. Why has Castro chosen this moment to crack down? Journalist Ann Louise Bardach, whose latest book is Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana, offers some answers.