The Ghost Returns

While Christians celebrated Easter Sunday an old foe took to the air in Iraq to commemorate another anniversary:

Duri, dressed in a drab green military uniform and black beret, reads remarks from sheets of paper, his hands shaking, and sometimes stumbles over the words.

"Our Baath (party), on its 65th anniversary, is in a major historic war," he said. "I call on this ... occasion for all the progressive resistance forces and all the national Islamic resistance forces to work for the liberation" of Iraq.

He alleged that "the political process today is ... for the benefit of Iran, which is carrying the most dangerous project for the Persians, with the intention of taking over Iraq and then destroying the nation."

Hmm, criticizing the Maliki government as tools of Iran. Is he still a foe or an asset?

By the way, it's funny how the AP and other mainstreamers covered this event, reminding us that al-Duri had both died and been captured more than once. Many also call him a force behind the insurgency, which could explain why he was high on both the American and Iraqi most-wanted lists (number two on ours, number one on theirs). Kinda funny for a guy who most Iraqis considered a joke. Perhaps he was less a joke to those in the know. This was from 2010:

Maliki's security adviser, Safa Hussein, warned in December that al-Qaida in Iraq has now fallen under the influence of the Baathists, led by Douri and his main rival, Gen. Mohammed Yunis al-Ahmad.

Indeed, on the latest video he was introduced as follows:

At the beginning of the video, a man in a military uniform introduces Duri and calls him the "high commander of jihad (holy war) and liberation ... and the general secretary of the Baath party."

Jihad, a religious thing. But religious men typically don't wear military uniforms. However, men who use religious zealots as useful idiots might. But that's in the past. It no longer matters; Iraq is no longer a story as Obama won the dumb war and brought home the troops by Christmas. All is well.