From the minute the first bombs fell, there has been nothing but rumor about Saddam Hussein’s whereabouts. The mystery has to end. He has to be captured or his body found. The reason is not that if alive he might stage a comeback.

He is not Napoleon and cooling his heels in some Iraqi version of Elba. Unlike the Corsican whose feats of military conquest stirred such a sense of awe and glory in Frenchmen that they were willing to give their lives for him, Saddam Hussein’s control over Iraqi hearts and minds can be attributed solely to fear.

Nor could Saddam organize a movement to resist whatever government is eventually set up. His regime and its Baath Party apparatus have been smashed beyond repair. It may have money abroad or it may have some supporters here or there but it is finished. History has already moved on.

Nonetheless without his capture or proof of his death or confirmation that he is in exile, he will continue to undermine the US victory.

Like Osama Bin Laden, he personified the Bush administration’s reasons for war. Forget weapons of mass destruction — as Washington will when they are not found.

This was, first and foremost, a war to get rid of Saddam Hussein, a tyrant who was an obvious and easy target. While he remains at large, Washington will therefore be seen in a sense to have failed, even though regime change has been achieved. That will have tremendous psychological impact in the Middle East.

The evil he has done will be forgotten. Myth will take over. Saddam will become, like Bin Laden, an Arab whom the Americans could not conquer, a Robin Hood figure, and as such, a hero to some Arabs and Muslims who bitterly resent the US policies and involvement in the Middle East.

And as a Robin Hood figure, he will also cast a shadow over Iraq and over the stability of the region. For that reason, he needs to be found, dead or alive.

Not that the Americans could do anything with him if he were captured. Legally, it would be impossible to try him in a US court.

It would have to be an international or an Iraqi court. If the Americans were to put him on trial, it would create a fury a thousand times greater than what was felt over the war — not because people think that Saddam should not face trial for his actions but because the US has no right to stand alone in judging the world’s malefactors.

In any event, it is not going to happen because no US court, civil or military, would be competent to try him. Realistically, if they get their hands on him, the most the Americans could do is hold him and eventually let an Iraqi court deal with him. Not that he would tell anyone about weapons of mass destruction or anything else.

Others may do so, including his son-in-law who has just surrendered or his half brother, captured last week. But not Saddam. He has his future reputation to consider.

He is not going to destroy it by telling the truth, let alone cooperating with the US. He is now in the business, like Bin Laden, of myth-making.