Bush praises Iraqi Baathist law (BBC news)

[Muttocracy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7185602.stm

Bush praises Iraqi Baathist law

The move means Baathists can rejoin the Iraqi army

US President George W Bush has praised a new law in Iraq that will allow former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to return to public life.

Mr Bush called it an important step towards national reconciliation.

The Baath party, formed mainly from Iraq's Sunni minority, was declared illegal after the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

(continued at link)

:crazy: The news and the blogs all make my head hurt...

[HeraldSquare212]

1. "Congratulations to Iraq for undoing my boneheaded deBaathification order" nt

[Muttocracy]

2. yeah. Remember when The Onion was weirder than the real news?

[shain from kane]

3. Read the Koran, say your prayers, and take your weekly bath, with soap and water.

[applegrove]

4. Way to go. 4 years too late.

[lumpy]

5. Crazy as usual. The Baath was Saddam's party.

Bush and his buddies perpetrators of war against the helpless.

[Muttocracy]

7. but also just day-to-day bureaucrats, right?

My understanding was that people had to join the Baath party to work for the government - including some teachers, doctors, etc. So when we kicked them all out of their jobs, we helped wreck the whole infrastructure. So, like someone said above, great, 4 years too late.

Not that I can keep track of it all anymore.

[ewagner]

6. Hooray for Debaathification...or....NOT

This is just one of the analysis of the law that Bush praised

http://toohotfortnr.blogspot.com/2008/01/dont-you-try-to-fake-me-out.html

snippets:

Welcome back to the world of fake reconciliation. At long last, the Shiite/Kurdish government finally passes a de-Baathification law, only the law is phony. The Sunnis are outraged: one Sunni parliamentarian calls the law "a sword on the neck of the people." But the Shiites throw their hands up and say What do you want from us? It took us over a year of arduous compromise to get to this point. That's as far as we can go! Or, for what they actually said:

But the legislation is at once confusing and controversial, a document riddled with loopholes and caveats to the point that some Sunni and Shiite officials say it could actually exclude more former Baathists than it lets back in, particularly in the crucial security ministries.