Last night Gideon Rose, the editor of The Foreign Affair Journal, was on the BBC talking about an article in the magazine that outlines what was occurring in Iraq during the run-up and invasion of the country.

Saddam’s Delusions: The View from the Inside

Summary: A special, double-length article from the upcoming May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, presenting key excerpts from the recently declassified book-length report of the USJFCOM Iraqi Perspectives Project.

Kevin Woods is a defense analyst in Washington, D.C. James Lacey is a military analyst for the U.S. Joint Forces Command. Williamson Murray is Class of 1957 Distinguished Visiting Professor of History at the U.S. Naval Academy. Along with Mark Stout and Michael Pease, they were the principal participants in the USJFCOM Iraqi Perspectives Project.

The short version is that Iraq under Saddam had a lot in common with the Soviet Union under Stalin. The leader was considered a “super-hero” who could do no wrong, and who lived in a bubble created by sycophants.

For some reason I’m reminded of someone else. I see a lot of leaves in the memory. Hmmm…

When I upgraded to Firefox’s latest version I lost my favorite plug-in, the Spellbound spelling checker for comments and forms.

Thus, I am thrilled that Rook discovered the Spellbound development version which works with the latest version.

Be advised that it is a “beta” version, so there’s no guarantee of stability, but no problems so far.

Eta, the current iteration of Basque separatists, have announced a permanent ceasefire in their decades old war against the Spanish government.

If it holds this is excellent news for the people in Spain.