SADDAM WEIGHS IN

According to James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web, "[e]ven the erstwhile Iraqi dictator is not backing the Hezbollah honcho, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur, the German wire service:

Toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has issued a warning to the Syrian leadership "not to go too far in its alliance with Iran," blaming Tehran for the current flare-up of violence in the Middle East, the head of Saddam's defence team claimed Tuesday.

"The president told us that the Syrian leadership should not go too far in its alliance with Iran, because the Persians harbour bad intentions for all Arabs and aspire to see them vanquished," he said.

"The Israeli aggression on Lebanon and the Palestinians is a natural result for what happened to Iraq with Iranian backing," Saddam reportedly said, alluding to the US-led invasion of Iraq that resulted in the ouster of his regime in April 2003.

Saddam supposedly goes on to offer a rather bizarre conspiracy theory about the U.S., Israel and Iran working in concert.