Bush's Iraq Puppets to Reinstate Ex-Saddam Supporters

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD8U4CGNO0

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA – 45 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's parliament adopted legislation Saturday on the reinstatement of thousands of former supporters of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to government jobs, a key benchmark sought by the United States as a step toward easing sectarian tensions.

The bill was approved by a unanimous show of hands on each of the law's 30 clauses. Titled the Accountability and Justice law, it seeks to relax restrictions on the rights of members of the now-dissolved Baath party to fill government posts.

It is also designed to reinstate thousands of Baathists dismissed from government jobs after the 2003 U.S. invasion — a decision that deepened sectarian tensions between Iraq's majority Shiites and the once-dominant Sunni Arabs, who believed the firings targeted their community.

The strict implementation of so-called de-Baathification rules also meant that many senior bureaucrats who knew how to run ministries, university departments and state companies ended up unemployed in a country where 35 years of Baath party rule and extensive government involvement in the economy had left tens of thousands of party members in key positions.

That, coupled with the disbanding of the Iraqi army, threw tens of thousands of people out of work at a critical time in Iraq's history and fueled the burgeoning Sunni insurgency.

[RC]

1. Actually this is a good thing.

Now maybe Iraq can put together a real working government.

[NNN0LHI]

2. Might have been a good thing 5 years ago and before Bush let Sadr's thugs hang Saddam

Not so sure now.

Don

[RC]

3. They know how to run a government. the other two factions do not.

I would suspect all three are getting tired of bu$h's war. If we, the US and Blackwater would just stop bombing them and shooting at Innocent people, don't you think peace just might mostly break out in Baghdad?