I caught a bit of the coverage of Saddam Hussein’s trial this morning on NPR on my way to work and it led me to formulate a prediction for Iraq’s future. The most interesting part of what I caugt was that, today, Hussein asked that he alone be held accountable for the actions of his regime and that the other defendants be acquited. To some Hussein’s request might seem like a noble effort but I’m inclined to suspect that Hussein is a fairly clever guy with ulterior motives. My prediction is this, Saddam Hussein will try to get his accomplices off and be imprisoned in Iraq–it is where he is a criminal, after all. Once the US has extricated itself from Iraq, allies of Hussein will retake control of the Iraqi government and free Hussein (not necessarily in that order). Saddam Hussein will then rule Iraq once more and the US will look like the bunch of idiots that we probably are.
In short, I predict that Saddam Hussein will rule Iraq again within 10 years, probably sooner.