Tapped out

In the day or two leading up to Saddam Hussein's execution and immediately following it, there were dire predictions that there would be a backlash of violence from the Sunni and Baathist insurgents in Iraq. While things certainly haven't improved, they don't seem to have gotten any worse. And I think I can guess why.

A significant eruption of violence would have indicated that these particular categories of thugs were holding back in the first place; that they all had little stashes of car bombs and IEDs and a reserve battalion of snipers set aside just for special occasions. That there hasn't been a big uptick in the violence quotient I think speaks volumes. Clearly, they're already maxed out and can't pump up the jam any more than they already are.

Unlike that amplifier in This Is Spinal Tap, this one doesn't go to 11.