The Hyper-Bowl

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a member of Saddam Hussein's defense team, suggested today that if his client were executed there would be a bloodbath. At a news conference, Mister Clark maintained "catastrophic violence" would follow that would lead to "the end of civilization as we know it in the birthplace of civilization, Mesopotamia. Total, unmitigated chaos."
I have the impression that Ramsey isn't following the news these days. At least 13 American soldiers have been killed around Baghdad since Monday. This is the highest four-day U.S. toll in the capital since the 2003 invasion. This number is likely to grow as the U.S.-led forces step up their campaign to root out the extremist militias, death squads and terrorist cells. U.S. commanders have defined victory as reducing violence in the capital to the point where Iraqi civilian police could handle security. U.S. officials won't say how they define defeat — insisting there is no choice but to win.
Meanwhile, back in Ramsey Clark's head, Saddam's Sunni Muslim tribe of one and a half million would be enraged over what they would consider the revenge killing of the former president by the Shiite-controlled and U.S.-sponsored government. I find myself wondering just how one would notice that level of chaos in the midst of all the chaos in which we find ourselves currently engaged. In a recent interview,General George Casey, the top U.S. general in Iraq, told The Associated Press that Baghdad is "the center of gravity for the country. Everybody knows that." And so it would seem that we find ourselvesengagedd in a battle not just for truth, justice and the American Way of Life, but for the very Laws of Physics. These are heady times, indeed.