Citizen Hussein

Saddam was cross examined yesterday in his trial and during the course of it said that the trial and the court was illegitimate. Nothing new there, but in the meantime, John Kerry has proposed that if the Iraqis have failed to form a governemnt by May 15^th, the U.S. should begin withdrawing it’s forces. Well,this might be an incentive to the Iraqi parliament, if not the people it would represent, which is just another rexample of the disconnect between the people and their leaders-seemingly as much a tradition there as it is here.

I had this strange thought. What if Saddam were to actually run for office. I’m not talking about a waste of time by trying to win the office of Prime Minister or President, of course he would be soundly defeated. But if he were to run as a delegate, a representative from some district of the Sunni Triangle, I have little doubt he would win. Of course, he would have to settle for considerably less than the 100 percent or close to it of the turnout and vote he typically engineered when he was the nations “legitimate” ruler. Still, he would probably win handily. What would be the result of that?

Well, on the up side, it would definitely insure Sunni participation, and for that matter nationally it might actually result in a legitimate 100 percent turnout. Of coruse,there would be the matter of the trial, plus the question would have to be answered, is he legally eligible to run for office. Probably not. It would, however, be a better scenario than him being broke out of prison by his supporters and reinstated as the nations President, after which it would be back to business as normal-with a vengeance.

Could that conceivably happen? If we left there prematurely, while failing to install an adequate Iraqi military and police force, yes, it could. And it will happen, eventually, if we leave without stabilizing the country. The dictators name might not necessarily be Saddam Hussein, but that’s beside the point.