The AP notes that Saddam Hussein has ended his hunger strike, and in fact only participated in it for eleven days. The reason he started eating again? He discovered that starvation is bad for his health. No, I'm not kidding:

Toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has ended on health grounds a hunger strike he began earlier this month to protest against the conduct of his trial, his chief lawyer said on Monday.

"The president maintained his hunger strike for 11 days but was forced to end it for health reasons," Khalil Dulaimi, who met Saddam for seven hours in Baghdad on Sunday, told Reuters.

Saddam, on trial since last October for crimes against humanity, threw already chaotic proceedings into more turmoil on February 14 by saying he and seven co-accused had been staging a hunger strike for the past three days.

What exactly did Saddam think would happen when he stopped eating -- that he would get healthier? Getting sick and dying is the point of a hunger strike, after all; it's an attempt to embarrass one's jailers into concessions. He didn't start eating because he got sick -- he started eating because he belatedly realized that no one gives a flying you-know-what if he dies in prison for any reason. In fact, many who have seen his corruption of the Oil-For-Food program, intended on feeding starving Iraqis, would have considered it poetic justice.

It's just another cowardly capitulation for the self-styled Second Saladin. After declaring that he would die in defense of his regime, and after watching his sons take him at his word, he meekly surrended in his spider hole. Now after boldly proclaiming that he would starve himself, he has gone back to eating his Cheetohs. It's hard to believe that this man found anyone to follow him at all.

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