Yes, the biggest mass-murderer since Pol Pot has been captured, and is likely to face harsh judgment at the hands of those he once oppressed. Millions are now freed from the fear that someday, somehow, the tyrant will return and the reign of terror will begin anew. And the nation he once did his best to pillage, maim, and destroy now takes another step on its way to becoming an actual democracy -- the first such in the Arab world, but hopefully not the last.

Naturally, this must somehow be construed as bad news.

Andrew Sullivan directs us to Jeffrey Overstreet's interview with John Rhys-Davies, which contains this haunting passage:

I grew up in colonial Africa. And I remember in 1955, it would have to be somewhere between July the 25th when the school holiday started and September the 18th when the holidays ended. My father took me down to the quayside in Dar-Es-Salaam harbor. And he pointed out a dhow in the harbor and he said, "You see that dhow there? Twice a year it comes down from Aden. It stops here and goes down [South]. On the way down it's got boxes of machinery and goods. On the way back up it's got two or three little black boys on it. Now, those boys are slaves. And the United Nations will not let me do anything about it."

The conversation went on. "Look, boy. There is not going to be a World War between Russia and the United. The next World War will be between Islam and the West."

This is 1955! I said to him, "Dad, you're nuts! The Crusades have been over for hundreds of years!"

And he said, "Well, I know, but militant Islam is on the rise again. And you will see it in your lifetime."