New law allows Baathists to reclaim jobs

[ursi]

Source: Associated Press

BAGHDAD - Iraq's presidency council on Sunday issued a controversial law that allows lower-ranking former Baath party members to reclaim government jobs, the final step for the first U.S.-backed benchmark approved by parliament.

The measure was thought to affect about 38,000 former members of Saddam Hussein's ruling political apparatus, giving them a chance to go back to government jobs. It would also allow those who have reached retirement age to claim government pensions.

It became law without the signature of the Sunni representative on the three-member presidency council because the constitution requires the body to act within 10 days after the panel received the law, according to Iraq's constitution.

Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi objected to provisions in the law that would have pensioned off 7,000 members of Saddam's former secret police and intelligence agents who still worked in Iraq's security apparatus. The law is the first of 18 pieces of benchmark legislation demanded by the Bush administration to promote reconciliation among Iraq's Sunni and Shiite Arab communities and the large Kurdish minority.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080203/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

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But, but ...didn't Bush push all the Baathists out of their jobs when he invaded Iraq?

[Adsos Letter]

1. ...about 4 years too late...according to Thomas Ricks, at least...

[Barrett808]

2. "Reclaiming" your job is probably a death sentence

I wonder how many days you'd be at your desk before the Interior Ministry goons show up with electric drills.

[pingzing58]

3. Baathists=Sunni. Their concern is those who were ready to retire and need their old jobs back.

[BearSquirrel2]

4. The original plan was to "destroy government"

The Bushevicks had their plan in hand to pull of a Friedman style libertarian transformation. Destroy government, allow the private sector to take over ... magic ... and then everything would be great. Instead everything turned to shit.

I was quite shocked when I heard an army officers story about garbage in Iraq. He was trying to get it removed. So he found the guys who did it under Saddam who asked for a paltry sum. He asked for the funds and got nothing but stalling in return. Then it was awarded to a US contractor at 10 times the cost.

These guys seemed to have exactly the right formula for really pissing people off who were generally grateful and receptive. What pisses me off today is that the Democratic congress seems to be spending very little time on Iraq war oversight. This is the Achilles heel of the Republican party, their colossal mismanagement of the Iraq fiasco.

[alfredo]

5. Those pensions will be worth nothing when the government falls.

[Baby Snooks]

6. Benchmark?

Reality is we were told we were to liberate Iraq by removing both Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party. James Baker and the others quickly found that as brutal as he was, there was civil order in Iraq under Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party so of course the solution was, and is, to restore the Baath Party to power. So the question has to be asked how this is a benchmark of success in the "liberation" of Iraq when in fact it most likely is a benchmark of total and complete failure.

The Baath Party most likely will quickly gain control of Parliament and probably will deliver on the promise of sending the intruders, our military, to the fires of hell.

And Bush really won't care just as long as the Baath Party manages to somehow get his oil law passed by Parliament. Which they may agree to just to regain control of Parliament. But then as they are about to send the intruders to hell, they will tell Bush to go to hell.

The International Court has no jurisdiction over our government but in the end the Baath Party may become its equivalent and act as judge, jury and executioner.

Sadly they will not be able to touch Bush and Cheney. Unless someone manages to kidnap them the way they have kidnapped so many others and send them to Iraq instead of Guantanamo.

History will not be kind to America. Neither will the Baath Party.

The only advantage is that the Baath Party will quickly rid Iraq of al Queda. Which would never have gained a foothold in Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

[FVZA_Colonel]

7. I've heard someone say that this and the fact that oil revenues are being disributed in spite

of the lack of an oil law are proof things are going well. I hope this isn't off tangent too far, but is it true oil funds are being distributed in that manner?

[Barrett808]

8. I never know what they mean by "oil distribution"

I mean, they can't even provide accurate production figures, due to pervasive oil smuggling. It's getting distributed, all right, but who knows where it's going.