"He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way... and he had dragged three of his young children with him."

"They were led to certain death. He reached the end of the tunnel, as our dogs chased him down. He ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children. His body was mutilated by the blast, the tunnel had caved in on it in addition, but test results gave certain, immediate and totally positive identification it was him. The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread — terrified of the American forces bearing down on him.... Baghdadi and the losers who worked with him — and losers they are — they had no idea what they were getting into. In some cases they were very frightened puppies, in other cases they were hard-core killers. But they killed many, many people. Their murder of innocent Americans James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller were especially heinous. The shocking publicized murder of Jordanian pilot — a wonderful young man, spoke to the king of Jordan, they all knew him, they all loved him — who was burned alive in a cage for all to see, and the execution of Christians in Libya and Egypt, as well as the genocidal mass murder of Yazidis, rank ISIS among the most depraved organizations in the history of our world. The forced religious conversions, the orange suits prior to so many beheadings, all of which were openly displayed for the world to see — this was all that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — this is what he wanted, this is what he was proud of. He was a sick and depraved man. And now he’s gone. Baghdadi was vicious and violent, and he died in a vicious and violent way, as a coward, running and crying.... He died like a dog. He died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place."

From the transcript (at the NYT) of Trump's statement this morning.

I was struck by the clarity of the speech and the forthright contempt.

Interesting that Baghdadi was compared to a dog — "He died like a dog" (and "they were very frightened puppies") — but there were also hero dogs on our side — "our dogs chased him down." The comparison to a dog was intended to make the death feel more painful to his supporters  — on the theory that Muslims hate dogs — and the dogs on the our side boosted our admiration for the American military — as Americans clearly love dogs. During the question-and-answer part — which is not in the transcript — whenever Trump said that none of our men were killed or even injured, he would add that a dog was injured. Though it's often been noted that Trump — an oddity among Presidents — has no dog, he certainly knows that Americans adore dogs, and that was manifested by the care he took never to say that on our side, "no one was injured." I think he knew very well that there are Americans who would take offense and yell "A dog was injured!" at their TV screen.