Bloodfest and Backlash

Sunday is the moment of truth for Saddam Hussein. While the timing of the verdict has been questioned, and rightly so, as part of an elaborate scheme on the part of the administration to make the last few days of this election season into a we-catch-bad-men (albeit the wrong bad men) pep rally, it is possible that such a scheme might just backfire.

Many of Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs, along with some Shiites and Kurds, are predicting a firestorm of violence if the court sentences the ex-president to death, as is widely expected.

I'm betting that an already sour American public will be in no mood to celebrate this verdict as Iraq takes another step toward irreconcilable chaos. The administration may have planned for a party, but a bloodfest and a backlash may just end up being the result.

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