SADDAM IS CALLING FOR IRAQIS TO RECONCILE: Austin Bay approves of the sentiment, but has doubts about Saddam’s credibility: “Start with the corpses. He’s now on trial for the deaths of 185,000 Kurdish men, women, and children slain in the 1987-88 Anfal operation. (The AP report says 180,000. An Iraqi report I read a couple of weeks ago said 185,000. Ballpark figures for mass murder are bitter math.) Tony Blair’s opinion on capital punishment, the Pope’s opinion, the opinion of the NY Times editiorial board — none of these mean squat. The opinion of the Iraqi people matters and I strongly suspect they favor hanging him high.”