Did the Ba'athists intend to assume a Plan B? Stratfor thinks so, and their analysis is that money made the insurgents' world go round. (Via Instapundit.)

Also - from nearly a week ago, Zeyad's explanation of why Saddam's broadcast as captive was so powerful (and so necessary for Iraqis):

If you had lived all your life ruled by a tough dictator elevated to the level of a god and then suddenly without warning watched that dictator displayed to the public on tv as a 'man', you probably would have related with my position.

The images were shocking. I couldn't make myself believe this was the same Saddam that slaughtered hundreds of thousands and plundered my country's wealth for decades. The humiliation I experienced was not out of nationalistic pride or Islamic notions of superiority or anything like that as some readers suggested. It was out of a feeling of impotence and helplessness. This was just one old disturbed man yet the whole country couldn't dispose of him. We needed a superpower from the other side of the ocean to come here and 'get him' for us. I was really confused that day I went out and almost got myself killed by those Fedayeen and angry teenagers in the Adhamiya district.

Zeyad's weblog, by the way, is fantastic (as are the other Iraqi blogs in my right-hand column). Take a moment and look at photographs taken during Zeyad's road trip to Basra.