PURGING THE BAATHISTS....Jeanne d'Arc is puzzled by our inconsistent approach toward Baath party members in postwar Iraq:
We're purging Baath Party members from universities and the oil industry (hmmmmmmm...) two places where you'd expect to find plenty of people who just went along to keep their jobs but we continue to get along just fine with the Baathist police and military, and even install them in power.
Pardon my ignorance, but in a police state, aren't the police likely to be the people you most have to worry about? If a country is a military monster Iraq was a dangerous military monster, right? A threat to the entire world? are generals likely to be uncompromised?
That does seem odd, doesn't it? I assume we're probably doing this because we were unprepared for the size of the policing effort that would be required and now find that we have a choice between anarchy and the Baathists. So we've chosen the Baathists.
I guess that's understandable, but I'm with Jeanne on this anyway: it just doesn't smell right. I hope there's not more here than meets the eye.
—Kevin Drum 9:02 PM
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