De-de-Baathification
Posted on 06/13/2004 2:33:10 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
De-de-Baathification
National De-Baathification Committee decides to reintegrate more than 12,000 former Baath members to public service.
BAGHDAD - More than 12,000 former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party are in the process of reintegration into public service a year after losing their jobs under a now abandoned policy of punishing loyalists of the ousted regime, a senior official said Thursday.
In a backtrack on its once hardline stance, the so-called National De-Baathification Committee - a body created and headed by erstwhile Pentagon favourite Ahmad Chalabi - reinstated the public servants.
"Our committee, which fired 30,000 people, has decided to reintegrate 12,000 who have appealed the decision," Mithal Allussi, director of the committee, said.
"They come from a range of sectors, for example the interior ministry, education or electricity," he said.
"Some decided to restart active work and others chose retirement."
The softer stance on former Baath party members followed Chalabi's fall from favour in a head-on collision with his US allies last month.
When US overseer Paul Bremer arrived in Iraq one year ago, he issued a decree expelling all senior Baathists from the administration and dissolving the armed forces.
The policy was the result of Chalabi's intense lobbying with his well-placed friends in Washington at the expense of Bremer's predecessor Jay Garner, who saw administering the war-torn country as the priority, not a witch-hunt.
Some 6,000 teachers were among the 30,000 civil servants fired by the committee under Chalabi.
So, the Baathists are back and the members of the army are being reinstated. All they need now is for Sodomy Insane to be put back on the throne and things will be complete ( and right back in prewar status). This is what happens when our State Department and Lawyers run a war.
I dont see it that way. Some of these Baaathists may have been qualified for their positions, and what is needed is co-operation to get a good Government not punishment because you happened to have had a job when Saddam was in power. Much like Patton wanted to put former Nazi's to work because they knew how to make the machines work, This may not be a bad idea.
Plus the only way to get certain jobs was to be a member of the Baath Party. I'm sure that just as in NAZI Germany or Soviet Union, people who were otherwise apolitical became party members in order to advance their carrers.
WAY overdue!
Agreed. Iraq could use 12,000 ditch-diggers, street sweepers and sewer-cleaners.
I seriously doubt that there are no competent non-Baathists to fill the positions of influence...
Next, someone will come up with the clever idea of filling Republican positions with dimocraps...
The Baath party was a secular nationalist party. I don't see anythign wrong with putting secularists in power.
On the contrary, after decades of Saddam I'd bet there are very few non-Baathists with the administrative experience needed to keep the sewers and pipelines in near running order.
Remember that after WW2 we had to use "ex" Nazi and Vichy managers and technicians to keep liberated Europe running.
I think we even used Japanese troops to police Hanoi while the French were trying to return.
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