Now that the deed has been done and Iraq has been conquered, you'd think the one thing the Bush Administration and it's critics could both agree on is that it would be good to keep Saddam's Baathist thugs from creeping back into power. Right?
Bush: Think what you like. But I've got an empire to run.
U.S. Inflames Some Iraqis By Bringing Back Baathists
BAGHDAD, May 6 -- Seeking to resuscitate Iraq's government, U.S. occupation authorities have decided to allow hundreds of Baath Party members to return to high-ranking ministerial and other posts, rankling many Iraqis who contend the new leadership should exclude officials from former president Saddam Hussein's repressive political apparatus.
Scores of Baath members have reclaimed jobs as managers, directors and directors-general, the most senior positions under ministers and their deputies, in several large ministries, including those responsible for trade, industry, oil, irrigation, health and education.
Numerous Baathists also have been welcomed back to the top ranks of the national police force, which the U.S. administration authorized to resume operations Sunday to curb lawlessness on the streets of Baghdad and other large cities.
Baghdad's new police chief, Gen. Hamid Othman, had previously been the chief -- a post that required party membership.
Granted, finding qualified technocrats in post-Baathist Iraq who are not tainted by association with the previous management must be almost as hard as finding an American CEO not tainted by association with a major accounting firm. They probably exist, but they're not exactly thick on the ground.
Still, how far does exigency take you, before you're simply recreating the same bloody dictatorship you came to overthrow?
Pretty damn far -- at least according to one Robin Rafael, an American diplomat serving as one of Jay Garner's deputy proconsuls:
Rafael . . . decided to reinstate the Baath Party leadership of Baghdad University, the largest in the country. Mr. Hussein's personal physician, Muhammad al-Rawi, who is president of the university, was granted permission to preside over the graduation of 17,000 seniors who will return to classes on May 17.
Now there's a great way to introduce the Class of '03 to the realities of the New Iraq® -- show 'em that the revolving door (not to mention the revolver) still works.
I can only wonder why Ms. Rafael didn't think to bring the "new" police chief, Gen. Othman, in as the commencement speaker:
Othman: This time, punks, no more Mr. Nice Guy.
Rafael: Such an inspirational speaker!
Update 5/8: Iraq's court system was reborn on Thursday when a group of suspects was led handcuffed to hearings guarded by American forces for the first criminal law proceedings since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Asked whether there was some 'injustice' in the fact that some of the Iraqis now applying the law were Baath party appointees, Clint Williamson (a senior U.S. adviser to Iraq's Justice Ministry) said criminal justice work was mostly carried out by judges separate from those who presided in Saddam's 'parallel system' of courts for political detainees.
An Iraqi man outside the court said the judges used to demand bribes. 'I have a case pending here. It's the same old faces,' he said.
Wir haben bloss Irak entnazifiziert...aaaah, entbaathifiziert....
sgc
Well, it was bound to happen. I mean, the US has always like the Ba'ath party--the CIA supported them as long ago as 1963, when it helped the Ba'athists assassinate then-leader Abdul Kasim Kassim. Hell, back then, Saddam Husseim was just a good old Ba'ath boy who was just doing his job running the secret service and killing/torturing/imprisoming all the Kassim supporters. Just an early version of John Ashcroft! If only Saddam hadn't tried to bump off Daddy Bush--he'ld still be around to help Bush II run the country. Maybe Smirk will invite him back! That's the ticket.