Word: iraqi
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Like the knee-jerk decision to dismantle the Iraqi army, the U.S. decision in 2003 to ban members of the former ruling Baath Party from joining the new Iraqi government was one of the biggest blunders of the early American occupation of post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. It instantly alienated an entire spectrum of civil servants and politicians, many of whom didn't have much loyalty to the old regime and could have been enlisted in the construction of a new government. And because many of them were Sunni, it helped widen the sectarian split in Iraqi society that eventually...
Though U.S. policy subsequently shifted, and the Iraqi parliament has nominally watered down de-Baathification laws, the early effort to purge the old regime still haunts Iraqi politics. Last week, the Accountability and Justice Commission, the remnant of a de-Baathification committee set up by the Americans, banned 499 Iraqi politicians from running in the national parliamentary election on March 6. Not only does the move damage the fragile reconciliation process between Sunni and Shi'ite factions, but it also throws the country's democratic process into disarray just as a landmark election is scheduled to take place...
...Iraqi government says it plans to appeal the recent decision by a U.S. court to dismiss charges against five Blackwater guards accused of killing 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007. The presiding judge threw out the case on Dec. 31, citing the prosecution's use of inadmissible statements by the contractors--a technicality that Iraqis called "unacceptable and unjust." Baghdad has pledged to pursue further legal action in U.S. and Iraqi courts...
...Iraq: By negotiating a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the Iraqi government shortly before leaving office, Bush made Obama's job a lot easier - because that agreement sets a cast-iron deadline for withdrawing all U.S. troops. Obama may press for an earlier drawdown to free up resources for Afghanistan, but even if he doesn't, the SOFA requires that all U.S. troops be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. Iraq remains far from stable, and the Obama Administration is working through diplomatic channels to cajole the Iraqis into managing their ethnic and sectarian political struggles...
...fisherman. On a recent balmy day, he sits bare-chested on his porch, recounting how his family became involved with the U.S. military. His brother Steven, a U.S. Army staff sergeant with 16 years in the service, was killed when an IED hit his unit's Humvee outside the Iraqi city of Bayji in 2005. One daughter just got out of the Army after eight years of service, while another has served two tours in Iraq and is still in the service. Of his two sons, one is presently in Iraq and one is stationed at Fort Hood in Texas...