Thought you might want to see this very interesting interview with a German Marxist on why he supports regime change in Iraq. Interesting discussion of long term ideological trends in German politics, and Germany's recent criticism of US preparations for Iraq. From Ha'aretz.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=215930

Sorry if the line break messes

Austin Bay and I corresponded a lot about a potential Iraqi coup before we wrote our latest efforts. He was kind enough to send me a draft of his column to "sanity-check" and returned the favor for my work.

I was please to see he adopted my invented phrase, "Beretta ballot," as shorthand for a coup. He originally called it the "9mm ballot." (But isn't Beretta ballot more alliterative? Kind of rolls off the tongue, ya know. . .

Sorry, that first link didn't turn out. It's here:

More on the "Beretta ballot" - Saddam as coup victim, what it would take, who might do it.

During the first Gulf War, Austin Bay was designing a simulation of the war for Strategy and Tactics magazine and I had the honor of being a part of the playtesting of the game. I had some fascinating conversations with Austin about the region - of which he was and is quite well informed.