I'm sure most of you have already read or heard that the Army is deploying the 3rd infantry division to the Middle East. The troop buildup continues. Saddam will either abdicate in favor of exile, have a 9mm heart attack administered by one of his inner circle, or be removed from office, (and most likely this world) by force of arms. I think each alternative is equally likely, as I read the tea leaves today.

I spent NYE at a party hosted by some dear friends from renfaire. They're both senior reserve officers in a critical combat support field, and that's all I'm going to say about them. They've both been given a heads-up to start tidying up their personal affairs, (they have, as you might expect, serious responsibilites in their civilian jobs) and expect activation soon.

It was a great party, as a side note - a murder mystery party. While none of us were smart enough to figure out whodunnit, (alcohol never made anyone any smarter) we all had a blast. Met some new friends, and spent much of the night discussing our nominees for the Top 10 Sci-Fi novels of all time, with the conversation seguing into the Top 10 Fantasy novels, and mucho fat-chewing about The Two Towers. But I digress, as I am wont to do...

That night, we discussed another prediction - one I hope does not come true. When the "hot war" starts against Saddam, he will use those WMDs he has that our UN Inspectors can't seem to find.

He would like to use them against US troops, but there's a problem with that. In order to do so, he's going to have to know where thay are, and his command and control network, already degraded today, is going to be compleatly ineffective, come the day. It'll be like a blinfolded shotgunner trying to hit a flock of geese as they fly by.

So, he's going to to use them against his own folks, and claim that the US did it. It speaks much to the mindset of some parts of the world that there will be many folks who will choose to believe him. There will even be a few morons stateside that will, or at least, say they do.

Even more outrageously, there will be those that will, while admitting that it was indeed Saddam that used his gas and anthrax, will blame the US nonetheless.