Word: baath
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With reversals of fortune come reversals of policy: having initially dissolved the Iraqi army and purged civilian ministries of most members of Saddam's Baath Party, Pentagon officials reversed course--they deny it is a policy change--and began inviting them back in hopes of drawing on much needed expertise. Despite President Bush's vow that the June 30 deadline for handing sovereignty back to Iraqis was cast in stone, Administration officials on the Hill were slicing the definition of sovereignty. The interim authority could make no laws, they said, and even Iraqi troops would remain under American control...
...recruits this month, the military has sent General David Petraeus, the celebrated commander of the 101st Airborne Division, back to Iraq to oversee the recruitment and training of new Iraqi military personnel. U.S. Administrator L. Paul Bremer reversed his year-old decree banning senior members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from holding any government jobs--a policy that gutted Iraq's military and police of most of their top leaders. The U.S. hopes that bringing unemployed officers back into the fold will improve the morale and professionalism of the security forces and begin to erode the core of support...
...earlier standoff, the logic of deploying superior force to eliminate a military challenge will likely prevail sooner or later. And, in the interim, the U.S. occupation authority has taken steps such as the reversal of a policy to deny government jobs to all former members of the Baath party, and the reinstatement of key officers of Saddam's old army, to signal the Sunni population that they have a stake in a post-Saddam Iraq in the hope of diluting the symbolic power of the standoff at Fallujah...
...Critically, it attempts to bring Sunni Muslims--who make up about 30% of Iraq's population and who ran Iraq under Saddam Hussein--back into the political process. Brahimi last week pointedly took issue with the U.S.-sponsored campaign of "de-Baathification," which stripped most members of Saddam's Baath Party of their old government jobs. "Professionals who are sorely needed in the country have been dismissed," Brahimi said, making clear that Baathists without blood on their hands would be welcomed back into the government. U.S. State Department officials have long argued that there would be no security in Iraq...
...daily mission," says Kimmitt, but he adds that it probably wouldn't stop the extremists. He has seen signs that the old regime's loyalists are joining forces with Islamists who have the money and leaders to take on the U.S. In exchange, militants who belonged to the ousted Baath ruling party can provide safe houses, weaponry and trigger pullers. "They've got to grab on to something," says Kimmitt, and if the trend continues, it may mean the "couple of hundred" fighters would be bolstered by many, many more...