Word: saddams
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Common ground has been so hard to find between Iraq's Shi'ites and Sunnis that the U.S. will take accord wherever it can. Hence the strange sight of the White House applauding a new law that would help members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party get jobs and benefits that the U.S. had stripped from them in 2003. On Jan. 12, lawmakers in Baghdad passed legislation that would give midlevel bureaucrats who worked for the former regime a shot at government jobs, and Baathist retirees with a clean record a chance to collect pensions...
...Iraq, the Administration has spent billions propping up an Iraqi government whose leaders take many of their cues from Tehran. Threats of possible U.S. military action against Iran have given President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a scapegoat, helping him maintain power by stirring nationalist solidarity. And the removal of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, combined with the decline in U.S. influence in the region, has created a void that Iran has exploited to spread its influence...
...Iraqi government, believing that the Shi'ites who run it are controlled by Iran. They trust the Americans instead. "When you realize they think we are the government then we need to take the initiative. They think if we can launch a missile from the Persian Gulf and destroy Saddam's palaces we can do anything." Like throw a switch and provide 24-hour electricity across the Iraqi capital. They look at us, says Crider, and think, "You're are the ones with the guns, with the money. To this day they believe we can do anything...
...There was also an older lady who proudly showed Captain Nicholas M. Cook, one of the better-known American soldiers in the neighborhood, a photograph of herself decorated by the minister of defense under the old regime. She had been one of the only female generals under Saddam but was too afraid to even display the photograph in the privacy of her living room. But she felt secure with Cook. Says Cook, "we've become so close to all the families. There are some families [here] I'm genuinely going to miss." His unit will be going home in April...
...newspapers across the country. It will allow all but a few thousand former Ba'ath party members to apply for government jobs and the military. Those still barred will at least receive their government pensions, which were previously revoked. The new law also allows victims of oppression under Saddam to sue Ba'ath party members for compensation...