Word: baathists
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...Military's new nemesis in Iraq is named Abu Mustafa al-Sheibani, and he is not a Baathist or a member of al-Qaeda. He is working for Iran. According to a U.S. military-intelligence document obtained by TIME, al-Sheibani heads a network of insurgents created by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps with the express purpose of committing violence against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. Over the past eight months, his group has introduced a new breed of roadside bomb more lethal than any seen before; based on a design from the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hizballah...
...other words, the Sunnis coming in to the political process may shun Zarqawi, but they appear to accept Baathist-led guerrilla fighters killing U.S. soldiers as part of the Sunni mainstream. Fears of full-blown sectarian warfare between Shiites and Sunnis, meanwhile, have prompted urgent mediation efforts by, among others, the firebrand Shiite maverick Moqtada Sadr. Sadr appears to be using the opportunity to regain political traction against rivals in organizations such as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is the most influential party in the ruling coalition of prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. But Sadr...
...Even more contentious than the number of cabinet positions being offered to Sunnis has been the plan by Jaafari's alliance to oust former Baathists from the security services and deny anyone with a Baathist past a cabinet position. Debaathification has been vigorously opposed by Sunni representatives in negotiations with Jaafari, and the U.S. has also urged the new prime minister to abandon plans for a purge of Baathists from the security services, believing that this could fatally weaken the ability of the Iraqi security forces to fight the insurgency. Jaafari is reportedly backing away from a wholesale purge, recognizing...
...successes against the insurgents than before, but the insurgency has also grown in scale and capability. But for all its proven ability to disrupt and sabotage the new order in Iraq, an insurgency based on the sectarian militancy of the Sunni minority can't easily succeed in restoring Sunni-Baathist authority over the newly empowered Shiites and Kurds, whose own militias render such an outcome unlikely even if U.S. troops were to withdraw. So, even if a civil war is already under way, it's worth remembering that civil wars do end - either when one side vanquishes the other...
...would like to avoid a Baathist purge, in part because the Bush Administration doesn't want to see two years of work building up the security forces erased. "We want to see the Iraqi security forces take a bigger role this year and we're working very hard to get them trained to do that," said a U.S. official in Baghdad. "Part of that is training a professional cadre and purging these people without reference to their loyalty now or their competence will set that back." To back up their words, the official said the U.S. could remind the Iraqis...