Those SCREECHING Sounds You Hear...

...are just the goalposts for our post-occupation plans for Iraq being moved.

U.S. Moves to Rehire Some From Baath Party, Military

The U.S.-led coalition is already bringing back senior military officers to provide leadership to the fragile new Iraqi army, with more than half a dozen generals from Hussein's military appointed to top jobs in the past week alone, U.S. officials said. Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, chief of Central Command, is working to identify other commanders to bring back, officials added.

"The decisions made a year ago have bedeviled the situation on the ground ever since. Walking back these policies is a triumph of the view in the field over policies originally crafted in Washington," said a senior U.S. official involved in Iraq policy. Ironically, the two policies were the first actions taken by Bremer, who brought them from Washington, when he arrived in Baghdad to assume leadership of the U.S-led occupation last May.

The administration says neither move is a reversal, but foreign policy experts said it will appear that way in practice to Iraqis. "We are reviewing implementation of policies to look at how to better balance the desire to employ resident expertise with the need for justice," said National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack.

Money line in bold. Reactions should be particularly interesting since "The committee charged with "de-Baathification" is headed by Ahmed Chalabi, a Shiite Muslim and controversial politician on the Governing Council."

Stay tuned.

Comments

[wilfred]

Why Kerry, that damn flip-flo.... oh, sorry. Nevermind. (how i miss emily litella).

[Edward]

Ahhh Emily...

some favorites

What's all this I hear about 'Endangered Feces'?
What's all this I hear about banning violins in school?
Whats all this I hear about the Presidential erections?
What's all this I hear about busting school children?

[Slartibartfast]

Perhaps, Edward, the problem of who to hire back is simply much less intractable than the problem of who to keep was. But it could be anything. Criticizing a change of tactics for its own sake, though: isn't it supposed to be the hallmark of Conservative thought?

[Edward]

Normally I would applaud this sort of flexibility, Slarti, and in fact I do, but I'm monitoring the goalposts closely for purely selfish reasons...see "The Bet" if you're not aware of why.

[wilfred]

What's all this fuss I keep hearing about Soviet Jewelry?

[Slartibartfast]

Ah. I'd forgotten about that. And to think, I passed up an excellent opportunity to give you a lecture on the degree to which Lady Luck cares naught for what contortions you go through to get your way.

And, as if I didn't know better: good luck.

OT, in a major way: I actually know people who believe in Luck. Sometimes it's a huge burden, being this smart.

[Timmy the Wonder Dog]

I'm not sure how the "bet" relates to the illustrated scenario maybe you can expand your thought process.

[Edward]

The wording tells the story I think, Timmy...I expect we'll hear much more like it leading up to the election

"We are reviewing implementation of policies to look at how to better balance the desire to employ resident expertise with the need for justice."

Here pre June 30 is the "desire"...there post June 30 is the "need"...slowly but surely the goal posts are sliding. Not long from now it will be "We are reviewing implementation of policies to look at how to better balance the desire to ensure all Iraqis have a voice in their government with the need to keep the oil fields safe from sabotage."

Or something like that.

[Slartibartfast]

So what do we call this? Anticipatory schadenfreude? Surely there has to be something clever in Latin, but never having been to Latin America...

[James Casey]

You know, I'm sure there are Ba'athists and Ba'athists. Just as there were members of the Soviet Communist Party, and members of the Soviet Communist Party.

Besides, haven't Ba'athists been used more or less since Day One? This doesn't sound like news.

[Timmy the Wonder Dog]

Eddie, you appear to struggle with policies which avoid guilt by association. BTW this is old news, in March the CPA generated a program to hire middle level managers who had been low level members of the Baathist party.

[Edward]

old news

Doesn't anyone click through and read any more?

The U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, proposed the policy shifts to broaden the strategy to entice the powerful Sunni minority back into the political fold and weaken support for the insurgency in the volatile Sunni Triangle, two of the most persistent challenges for the U.S.-led occupation, the officials say. Both policies are at the heart of national reconciliation, increasingly important as the occupation nears an end.

...

The escalating confrontation between U.S. troops and Sunni insurgents around Fallujah over the past month has accelerated the debate within the administration, a senior State Department official said. The administration wants to balance military pressure with political and economic incentives to ensure alienation among Sunnis does not deepen, he said.

The biggest concern and unknown is how Iraq's Shiite majority, historically repressed by the Sunni minority, will react to the two moves, U.S. officials said. As the United States brings back military officers, it is paying special attention to the balance among ethnic and religious factions. The first three former generals reinstated this week included a Sunni Muslim, a Shiite and a Kurd.

It's not mid level managers we're talking about here...it's generals...it's much of the very power structure that we sought to change...

The first move to revise policy on former Baathists will be to reinstate about 11,000 teachers and hundreds of professors fired after Hussein's demise last year, U.S. officials said.

So the Baathists had a long enforced sabbatical, but now they're back....compare this with this

Senor noted Bremer has said that de-Baathification should be a policy implemented and managed by Iraqi people.

hmmm...are the Iraqi people now re-instating the Baathists? No. "The United States is moving to rehire former members of Iraq's ruling Baath Party."

Already, we've decided, the Iraqi's don't choose, we choose.

[Timmy the Wonder Dog]

Edward, read this, take two aspirins and we should talk.

.....Since the U.S.-led liberation of Iraq, former regime supporters have allied themselves with foreign fighters who seem to be entering Iraq via Syria, officials said. U.S. officials suspect that members of al Qaeda affiliate Ansar al-Islam have cells in the city. Other terror groups have allied themselves with former regime elements and Sunni extremists, making for a very volatile mix.

I don't believe these former regime supporters are going to get a job.

[sidereal]

So are former Ba'athist generals with us or against us? I'm afraid all of this nuance about efficacy and compromised justice is threatening the sweet, golden clarity that makes our current leaders so much better than normal people.