Word: saddamism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
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...
...when U.S. forces faced with a crowd of anti-American demonstrators killed 17 civilians. Since then, about half a dozen different military outfits have had responsibility for keeping order, which has made it hard for soldiers to build relationships with any local Iraqis not allied with the die-hard Saddam loyalists and foreign jihadists who set up shop in the city...
...Iraqi 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...
...their U.S. employers. Many wear masks to hide their identities. "All the policemen are afraid," says Sergeant Walid Hani Hamid. "People think the Iraqi police are walking hand in hand with the Americans. We are forced to sneak back to our houses the way the mukhabarat did during Saddam's time...
Bush's reaction to the CIA's prewar briefing on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction is instructive. According to Woodward, the President isn't impressed with the evidence--but this doesn't seem to cause him a moment of doubt about his mission to rid the world of Dr. Evil. No, he's concerned about the looming sales job. "Nice try," he tells John McLaughlin, the deputy CIA director. "I don't think this is quite--it's not something that Joe Public would understand or would gain a lot of confidence from...