Time for another Baath?

Facts and Opinions ----Time for another Baath?

by Jeff Schmidtke

"So much can be said about this war, about Iraq, about Saddam. It seems you’re either for the war or against it. Combat aside… it’s the talk, the lies, the deceit, and the confusion that has become more frustrating than whether it is right or wrong to be fighting. For anyone who has followed this media frenzy, it has been far from consistent."

Facts

“Having broken the Baathist regime, we face a remnant of violent Saddam supporters. Men who ran away from our troops in battle are now dispersed and attack from the shadows. These killers, joined by foreign terrorists, are a serious, continuing danger. Yet we're making progress against them. Of the top 55 officials of the former regime, we have captured or killed 45. Our forces are on the offensive, leading over 1,600 patrols a day and conducting an average of 180 raids a week. We are dealing with these thugs in Iraq, just as surely as we dealt with Saddam Hussein's evil regime.” (Bush, 2004)

A convinced president speaking on behalf of the GOP and the nation at large to an audience three times the size of Justin’s Superbowl... the world. This excerpt you might remember during the 2004 State of the Union address. Oddly enough, we may be praising these same ‘killers’ come the 2005 State of the Union.

Writers for the New York Times have reported that L. Paul Bremer III, the chief of the occupation authority, has ‘revised’ policies that had seemed unchangeable approaching the transfer of sovereignty on June 30. Like a storm-tossed ship's master calling all hands, he has reached out to members of the old government, holding out the prospect of return to thousands of former officials and Baath Party members (Burns & Fisher, 2004). Burns and Fisher (2004) continue to explain that a former general in Mr. Hussein's army, Jasim Muhammad Saleh, strode through the streets of Fallujah in his old Iraqi uniform as the head of a new force of 1,000 former Iraqi soldiers assigned to quell the anti-American insurgency there.

The general, member of both the ‘evil’ Baathist regime and the Republican Guard is taking over for the US Marines, “who would prefer the Iraqis to confront Iraqis and thus avoid stirring deeper anger against the occupation,” American officials say.

Officials also reported that this move is intended to re-stabilize the country by inviting some of its most educated and qualified professionals to reclaim their old jobs (Burns & Fisher, 2004). American officials continue… it is also intended to reverse the abrupt erosion of American popularity here, by gaining the backing of a constituency — powerful members of Mr. Hussein's old bureaucracy (Burns & Fisher, 2004).

Confused?

In January of this year George W. Bush named the Baathist Party ‘evil killers’ during his State of the Union address. In the year leading up to the Iraq war we can remember the reiterated rhetoric that is familiar to many… Consisting of how Saddam’s regime has purchased nuclear technology from Libya (which was proven untrue); how his regime gassed its own people; how they’ve tortured thousands, perhaps millions leading to massive grave-sites; and how Iraq participated in the atrocities of 9-11. These examples perpetuated by a regime that calls itself the Baath Party.

In 1992 Kurdish officials and investigators from human-rights groups had obtained evidence of a carefully planned and executed Iraqi-government campaign against the Kurdish minority in the late 1980s that took tens of thousands - and by some Kurdish estimates more than 180,000 – lives (Randal, 1992). This evidence, some of which has been shown to reporters, includes written accounts, audio and videocassettes of torture sessions, executions, planning sessions, poison-gas attacks and post-action reports (Randal, 1992).

Just recently, one Iragi citizen expressed how Saddam Hussein's government had killed many of his relatives and now he wants justice, not the return to power of the same police force that had executed his family members (Glasser, 2004)

The build-up of coalition forces coupled with public support that a justifiable war was at hand was entirely based on ridding the world of this ‘monster’ regime, on liberation, on proliferation, on freeing Iraq, and on installing a democratic government.

Operation Iraqi Freedom was clear from the very beginning… regime change. Salib (2003) of the Los Angeles Times supported this mission by asserting that the US military must facilitate the purging of Baathists and human-right’s violators. Salib continues to illustrate that during the transition period, de-Baathification (like de-Nazification in the period following World War II) will be vitally important.

Opinions

So much can be said about this war, about Iraq, about Saddam. It seems you’re either for the war or against it. Combat aside… it’s the talk, the lies, the deceit, and the confusion that has become more frustrating than whether it is right or wrong to be fighting. For anyone who has followed this media frenzy, it has been far from consistent.

From 9-11 relations, to regime change, to weapons of mass destruction, to illegal arms trade, to liberation, to democracy, scores of reasoning have at one time or another attained the forefront. Nonetheless, a common theme through all the coverage has been to dismantle Saddam and his regime. It seems to be the reason that is still talked about and (more importantly) agreed upon today. This mission has been a success. The armed forces combined with the intelligence community and many others have done a magnificent job capturing Saddam and making him face trial.

The problem, however, is that we are putting ourselves back into square one by reinstating power to Saddam’s original regime, the Baath Party. There are many common sense risks to this hypocritical change in policy. The shift will likely divide Iraq's majority population of Shiite Muslims, who were formerly oppressed by Mr. Hussein's Sunni-dominated Baathist government. One Iraqi cleric has said that Iraqi’s have seen this as humiliating, and other Iraqi’s feel the changes have been viewed as a major rollback. Many Iraqis see no ground for forgiveness toward members of Mr. Hussein's regime that sent hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to miserable deaths.

One of the most bitter reactions came from Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite and the most prominent of the Iraqi exiles who returned after Mr. Hussein's fall, who was appointed by Mr. Bremer in December to oversee de-Baathification. Mr. Chalabi drew an analogy with postwar Germany. "This is like allowing Nazis into the German government immediately after World War II” (Reuters, 2004).

How could any ‘liberated’ Iraqi feel joy over our presence as we pronounce that America is the giver of peace and freedom, yet, assign their former police force to take back control?

American officials have responded by announcing the positives of how this move will ‘re-stabilize the country by inviting some of its most educated and qualified professionals to reclaim their old jobs’. Yes, the most educated and professional killers, racists, and separatists.

I can’t say I’m surprised.



References:

Burns, J.F., & Fisher, I. (2004). Seeking to Stabilize Iraq, Casts Baathists in Lead Roles.
SeattleTimes [On-line]. Available: www.seattletimes.com

Bush, G.W. (2004). Transcript of the State of the Union address. Seattle Times [On
line]. Available: www.seattletimes.com

Glasser, S. (2003). Free speech mingling with chaos in Basra. The Washington Post
[On-line]. Available: www.washingtonpost.com

Randal, J. (1992). Iraqi Atrocities Told On Tapes -- Kurds, Human-Rights Probers Tell
Of Detailed Evidence Of Slaughter. The Washington Post [Online]. Available:
www.washingtonpost.com

Salih, B. (2003). After Saddam: Iraq must emerge as a democratic state. Los Angeles
Times [On-lone]. Available: www.latimes.com