The Mother of all Battles

It's now being widely reported that the Chief Judge in Saddam's show trial is stepping down. Everybody and their brother has already trashed the guy for losing grip of the proceedings. It's clear who seems to have the grip.

Coincidental perhaps, but this story comes just days after Saddam's former front-man Tariq Aziz was reported to be near death. His lawyer claimed it was due in part to his sequestration in a holding cell the size of a mobile home closet.

But c'mon, can they really expect us to believe another death report? As of today, every single high-ranking terror target has now died and come back to life at least once (maybe they got a glimpse of the 72 virgins)?

So, in the long-awaited Mother of all Battles things do seem to be 'passing strange'. Saddam is allowed to take control of his own trial while his minions direct an insurgency. Meanwhile, a majority of Americans now believe Iraq was not worth it, while politicians on both sides start talking about troop redeployments. Let's review the Butcher's plan (from the WSJ article in the preceeding post):

About the same time, pamphlets began circulating in Baghdad describing the "Party of Return," with vows to kill Iraqis who worked with the Coalition. We also know that documents discovered with Saddam in his rabbit hole in late 2003 included a claim that the insurgents would know they had won when a U.S. Presidential candidate called for withdrawing American troops from Iraq.

All the while the administration sits on a pile of documents possibly linking Saddam with terrorism and thus inarguably validating the war, not to mention getting the bulk of America back behind the effort and bolstering troop morale. Instead we hear crickets.

In the immortal words of H.I. McDunnough, "ok, then".

1/16/06 HERE COME DA JUDGE

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi court trying Saddam Hussein appointed a replacement on Monday for the chief judge, who tendered his resignation last week, the chief prosecutor in the case Jaafar al-Moussawi told Reuters.

Kurdish judge Rizgar Amin would not attend the next hearing on January 24 and Sayeed al-Hamashi, currently Amin's deputy on the five-member panel of magistrates, would instead preside, he said.

Wonder if they inquired about this guy? Even at this advanced age I have no doubt he'd keep the Butcher in his place.