Dear L,

this time Juan Cole wrote quite a good piece in salon.com, highlighting that for Sunnis Eid al-Adha is today, but for Shi'ites tomorrow.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/12/30/saddam/

The whole Saddam trial was made into a sectarian issue - (bad) Sunnis vs. (good) Kurds/Shi'ites. And both Kurds & Shi'ites went right along with this idea, showing that the U.S. boys aren't the only ones who are daft when it comes to Iraq.

--MSK

Not a matter of daft, mate, the Kurds and the Shia were playing to an audience (well more than one, US and own partisans).

The US policy makers, however, should not be such dupes.

Of course, they should not be so incompetent either, so if wishes were fishes...

i thought it was funny that the tv anchors were telling me it's an america decision to have it on eid, "as a deliberate insult and humiliation to muslims". do they think americans know when/what eid is?

I was kind of hoping that instead of dropping the ball at Times Square, New York, for New Years they'd drop Saddam through the trap door on the platform; 10-9-8-7-6.....