So I get back to the office and find 60 new emails (not counting Paris Hilton offers) with suggestions and links. Wonderful! It's like a candy smörgåsbord.
Well Saddam seems to still be a hot topic for a lot of people, so I'll just jump in there.
Rosanne in Florida links me to an article in Debka File that suggests Saddam was actually a prisoner of the Turks, who were apparently trying to negotiate for the reward when Saddam was whisked away by the Americans (I wonder if they got a receipt?). A captive of the Turks? Possibly, but I'm not sure why they would have given Saddam a pistol if he was a captive and not a fugitive. Maybe Saddam thought he was a fugitive and was unaware of the ongoing negotiations? $25 million can buy off a lot of friends.
I also got a good link from Eric C pointing to this article in the Philly that gives some [virtual] ink to several bloggers' coverage of Saddam, including our own:
"Philadelphia's anonymous blogger Atrios, writing on atrios.blogspot.com, agreed, saying, 'Capturing Saddam isn't going to end the resistance to the U.S. occupation in Iraq. It may improve things slightly, or it could even make it worse, but the net effect will probably be negligible.'"
To which I'd like to add; no shit Sherlock.
While the Right goes bananas over this, as if it suddenly justifies the entire operation (and undoubtedly those operations yet to come), this really should have as much affect on ending terrorism as the capture of Pablo Escobar had on ending illegal cocaine shipments. Probably less, considering that Pablo was actually central to a vast cocaine production/transportation system while Saddam was tangentially involved in terrorism (at best) and otherwise living in a hole in the ground.
Want to suck the joy out of your favorite neo-con at work? Try this: Our UPS driver, a real Gun in One Hand Bible in the Other Republican struts in yesterday, happy as could be.
"Heeeey! You hear they got Saddam?"
Me - with straight face: "Yeah, this is great news! The attacks should stop now, shouldn't they?"
"Uh, I don't know about that . . ."
". . . but we can at least start bringing our troops home, right?"
"Uhhh, [changes subject] but hey, the Iraqis are sure happy about it."
"And I'm sure they'd like to go about putting their country back together now, too. So, now that Saddam is caught, how long do you think until we get to bring our troops home?"
"Uhh, I gotta go."
He didn't have quite the same bounce in his step as he left.
Troll prophylactic: Saddam was a BAD, BAD man and the world is a better place with him in custody. But, at $150,000,000,000, how many more BAD men do we take out next?
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