First of all, it's important the term 'UFO' from 'alien spaceship.' I'm not saying there were aliens over Phoenix that night. I am saying, however, that there is no way in hell that those lights were flares. In one night, those lights traveled from the Henderson-Vegas area to Tucson. They passed over roughly 9 cities.
I think it's highly possible that those lights were in fact a test version of some sort of aircraft the Air Force is testing. It's been revealed that many of the UFO sightings of the 80s of triangular black 'alien spaceships' turned out to be the F-117 and the B-2 stealths.
And I think we would all love to wake up one morning to find out that Osama had recently had been reduced to small, singed particles smeared over the desert floor. When we get him, and Zarqawi, I'm throwing a party.