Comical Ali has the last laugh at the US
We chuckled as we listened to him predict the routing of the "infidels" in Iraq at the hands of poorly armed but well motivated fighters and peasants.
We likened him to a village idiot on the world stage, and George W Bush, who can hardly call anybody else an idiot, joked that Ali was his "favourite member of Saddam's crazy regime".
The Americans were so contemptuous of Ali that they even refused to arrest him when he attempted to surrender. Instead, they initiated another round of jokes to ridicule the ramshackle Third World army they had just apparently crushed and incinerated.
Who's laughing now?
Comical Ali just got the timing wrong. Was he clairvoyant? He described future events with laser-sharp accuracy.
A stand-up comedian recently predicted that he might get his own TV show after the dust has settled on his ill-fated career. He might indeed if he's not appointed president of Iraq when the Americans have been thrown out.
John Fitzgerald
Lower Coyne Street,
Callan,
Co Kilkenny.
