The war may still be far from over, but it looks as if Baghdad is no longer under the control of Saddam's regime for the first time in nearly three decades.

It looks as if the dapper Iraqi Minister of Information and his goons have slipped out in the middle of the night:

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, who been the public face of the Iraqi government during the war, did not appear Wednesday for his daily briefing. The government minders, who have shadowed international reporters for the last 12 years, were not at the Palestine Hotel, which is the base for many journalists, CNN's Rula Amin reported.

As with any phase in the war, it seems premature to celebrate. There's always the possibility of a chemical attack on Baghdad from the outside, now that all of the regime leaders seem to have fled. With looting and sporadic fighting still going on it seems as if Baghdad is mostly in a state of anarchy (though reports suggest that the looting is primarily of former government buildings, and not shops or businesses).

Cautious optimism is the buzz-word used at CentCom, and it seems like a good term to apply to what appears to be the fall of Baghdad.