Sometimes ya just get it right

The Daily Telegraph (UK) reports on December 21 that

Iraqi officials and judges involved in setting up Baghdad's new war crimes court have revealed that Saddam Hussein's trial will not be finished for five years, despite the clamour for speedy justice since his arrest last week. ...

Iraqi judges, who are drafting new laws of genocide and war crimes to be incorporated into the country's legal system, say that the volume and complexity of the cases against Saddam mean that it will take at least a year to formulate charges. ...

The coalition, however, hopes that the process can be speeded up. "Five years would be abnormally long," said one senior legal official. "We hope to get the trial under way by the end of next year, but it is impossible to say how long it will be before he finally leaves the dock."

The end of next year meaning late 2004 or early 2005, safely beyond the elections, just as I predicted on Tuesday. Right after the elections being, of course, the best possible time for Bush: It allows him to trumpet "We're bringing the tyrant to justice!" all through the campaign, knowing the embarrassing revelations that will arise in any trial worthy of the name will come too late to hurt him.