Word: baathist
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...kinds of criminals and terrorists come into Mosul from Syria. It's like the Super Bowl for them," says Salim Kako, a top official of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, which represents many Christians in Mosul. The outsiders have mixed with Mosul's homegrown fundamentalist Islamic opposition and a potent Baathist resistance fueled by the city's large number of unemployed soldiers. This stew of local and outside insurgents is stepping up attacks on American and Iraqi security forces - and anyone suspected of collaborating with them. Week after week, car bombings, improvised explosives and shootings take a steady toll of Iraqi...
...believes, Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's chief operative in Iraq. The U.S. has tried to find Iraqis willing to root out the militants who are imposing Taliban-style rule in the city, bringing miscreants before a strict Islamic court. The Fallujah Brigade, a group of former Baathist officers whom the Marines armed and outfitted after the April standoff, has collapsed. Marine commanders say the unit is aiding the same rebels it was formed to fight. As a result, the city has become the country's most conspicuous "no go" zone for U.S. troops. American commanders can do little...
Most important, the sanctions "containing" Saddam were collapsing. That would have produced the ultimate nightmare: a re-energized and relegitimized regime headed by Saddam--and ultimately, even worse, his sons--increasingly Islamicizing its Baathist ideology, rearming and renewing WMD programs, and extending its connections with terrorist groups. The threat was not imminent. But it was ominous and absolutely inevitable. Bush, correctly, thought it necessary to remove it. It was obvious to all that this second war would jeopardize his presidency. He risked his entire political future for it nonetheless...
...greatest risk. Many have become virtual prisoners inside their houses, seeking a safe haven amid rising rates of rape, kidnapping and carjacking. At the same time, as the power of Iraq's Muslim clerics has grown, the everyday freedoms that Iraqi women enjoyed under Saddam's secular Baathist regime have eroded. Women who once felt free to dress in Western clothing and shop alone now must wear a hijab, the traditional Muslim head scarf, when venturing outside. Many government offices require female employees to wear a veil at work. "Since the war, women feel they cannot go anywhere without...
Even if the police force is soon beefed up, real security will require nothing less than a functioning military capable of large-scale operations. Allawi reportedly wanted to bring back as many as five old military divisions that would have included a sizable cadre of former Baathist officers. But Saleh said the recall of army men would be done on a "case by case" basis that would involve rehiring good professional soldiers but integrating them into new divisions that would owe their allegiance "to Iraq, not to a regime or person." The Minister of Defense has asked...