Iraqi bill to allow Baathists back into the government
I hope this bill passes the Iraqi parliament, and soon.
Long demanded by the U.S. to appease Iraq’s once-dominant Sunni Arab minority, the measure would set a three-month challenge period after which ex-Baath party loyalists would be immune from legal punishment for their actions during Saddam’s reign.
The draft law, which excludes former regime members already charged with or sought for crimes, also would grant state pensions to many Baathists, even if they were denied posts in the government or military.
The only way Iraq will come together is if they all come together. Disbanding the military and the government following the initial invasion has proven to have been a mistake, and trying to build new versions from scratch has been a long, painful experience. We gutted the two government agencies we needed the most in a post-Saddam era, when we should have done only some selective pruning.
The proposed law would supersede post-Saddam Iraq’s de-Baathification program — under which senior members of the Baath party were ejected from government and military posts. That was done under an edict from L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. official who ran the country for about a year after the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam.
Many former Baathists have since been reinstated, especially teachers and some military officers, after the U.S. found it had gutted key ministries and the military with no replacement personnel among the Iraqi work force and educated elite.
Along with ousting Baathists, Bremer dissolved Iraq’s military and security organizations, putting tens of thousands of armed men out of work. Much of the Sunni Arab insurgency that has proven so deadly to U.S. troops is believed to have coalesced around the dismissed military men.
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