Al-Douri Dead, Again

Maybe this time they really got him:

A top aide of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has been killed during fighting against Sunni insurgent forces, senior Iraqi officials claimed Friday, in a potential blow to factions opposing the government in Baghdad.

But previous reports over the years about the death of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri have proven wrong. Iraqi officials said a DNA analysis of the body was planned.

Indeed, he's one of the top zombie fighters left in the deck of cards. But it certainly does look a little like him, maybe on one of his worse days.

Assuming he's finally in heaven meeting 72 virgins that look like Helen Thomas, the political class will probably decide to use him as a cudgel against Bush-- Jeb Bush.  In the twisted logic of liberal-land it works like this: had George W Bush not invaded Iraq and turned loose the dogs of AQ and other insurgents, Izzat would have never mattered. He would have been inconsequential. And all those innocent people that ISIS butchered would still be there.  Al-Douri had to fight because Bush tossed his Sunni regime out.  Therefore GW Bush created ISIL (Obama-approved acronym) so Jeb Bush is a warmonger who will create more ISILs or something.

But there's another side of the coin.  Izzat al-Douri was the one who persuaded Saddam to put "Allahu Akbar" on the Iraqi flag after the Gulf War. He was in charge of Islamizing Saddam's regime to some degree, probably to keep the Islamic Jihadists at bay during the post-war era where Saddam's power had been eroded. In doing so there was a certain embrace of the radicals, which showed itself to the very end with Douri's Naqshbandi Order having little trouble tag-teaming with the terrorists in an attempt to retake Iraq. So the question should be "where else did they tag-team"?

But of course, everyone considers that question long-answered.  And Jeb Bush probably has no desire to answer it any differently.  And he really doesn't have to if Hillary is his opponent.  But if Hillary drops out he will be forced to deal with it, one way or the other.  Will he throw big brother under the bus while embracing his foreign policy?  Wouldn't look very presidential.  

MORE  4/17/15

I confess I've always been weirdly obsessed with this guy.  Maybe it's because for such a high-level member of the old regime, nobody seems to care about him. The Bush people never made him a public target or even discussed him; the Obama people have never mentioned his name to my knowledge, despite his purported role in ISIS.  Here's another example of the weirdness.  Marie Harf at State is asked about the death report, to which she 1) coughs, 2) looks uninterested, 3) tried to quickly move on, and 4) says "I'll check" several times, which means we'll never hear about it again unless someone asks.  At the end of the clip watch her eyes--she seems to almost roll them.   Why would the administration not want to celebrate this kill?

 

With the news people are asking if he's the last remaining figure in the old most wanted "deck of cards" (he was King of Clubs).   To my knowledge one of the bigger figures is still missing--Taher Habbush, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, who might know a thing or two or three about a lot of things.