[Vision2020] Failure (Was Tet Offensive)

[Tom Hansen]

ToeKnee stated

"And Sunil, yes, the middle east is not known for budding democracies- until
 now, that is."

And your example of a "budding democracy", Toe Knee . . . 

>From the November 7, 2006 edition of the Washington Post -
(ensure to copy and paste the entire URL)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/06/AR2006110601
321.html

It has been further reported that those Baath Party members that would be
"rehired" are already considering Saddam Hussein to be a martyr.

Now, why are we there, ToeKnee?

What have we accomplished?

Allowing the Baath Party to resume is akin to re-instating Nazi Party
members in Germany after WW2.

------------------------------------------------------------

Proposal Would Rehire Members of Hussein's Party

BAGHDAD, Nov. 6 -- A high-ranking commission of Iraq's Shiite-led government
said Monday it had prepared a draft law that could return tens of thousands
of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to their government jobs.

After toppling Hussein in the spring of 2003, the interim U.S. authority
that ran Iraq enacted a plan that purged Baath Party members from their
government jobs, whether or not they had been accused of wrongdoing. The
move threw thousands of Baathists out of work and is blamed by many for
creating a vast pool of unemployed, disenfranchised Sunnis who later became
eligible recruits for insurgent groups.

Thousands of former Baathists have since been allowed to return to their
posts after rigorous vetting, but political and security analysts say that
if the government were to enact more sweeping measures, it could help soothe
rampant sectarian violence and advance reconciliation between the country's
Shiite Muslims and Sunni Arabs.

Ali al-Lami, executive director of the Supreme National Commission for
de-Baathification, said in an interview that the commission had drafted a
law for parliament that would give 1.5 million former Baathists who
"excommunicate" themselves from the party the option of returning to their
former government jobs or drawing a pension for their past employment. Other
estimates have put the number of purged Baathists in the tens of thousands;
the figures could not be reconciled.

Lami said 3,000 or so top former Baathists would be given their pensions but
would not be allowed to resume government employment. And about 1,500
high-level former Baathists would be barred from ever resuming their jobs or
drawing a pension.

The announcement came as Iraq's capital and other volatile areas around the
country remained under a full curfew following the death sentence handed
down to Hussein the day before. With violence levels seemingly low and
people increasingly defying the curfew, the government announced that life
would return to normal on Tuesday.

Lami said the timing of the proposed rollback of de-Baathification -- which
would be a boon for Sunnis -- had nothing to do with the verdict in
Hussein's trial.

"There have been a lot of meetings with the political blocs and
nongovernmental organizations, and it's almost complete," Lami said. "This
is only for those who left the Baath Party," he said, noting that Iraq's
constitution outlaws the party as a terrorist organization.

The two-day curfew, which covered Baghdad, the northern cities of Mosul and
Kirkuk and the restive provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala, was imposed
Sunday morning by authorities fearing a violent backlash against the verdict
in Hussein's trial, which was announced later in the day. He was found
guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang for the killings of
148 Shiite men and boys from the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad, in the
1980s.

The verdict sparked anguished protests by Sunni Arabs, particularly in
Hussein's home town of Tikrit, and jubilant celebrations by Shiite Muslims,
who were ruthlessly suppressed during his 24-year rule, but there were few
reports of violence. It remains to be seen whether the curfew succeeded in
stopping retaliatory attacks or only deferred them.

Passions remained high in some areas, but the government lifted the curfew
for pedestrians at 4 p.m. Monday and announced that people and vehicles
could return to all of Iraq's roads at 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Pro-Hussein demonstrators marched Monday in several towns north of Baghdad,
in the Sunni heartland, including Tikrit, 90 miles north of Baghdad, and
Samarra, where the bombing of a Shiite shrine in February sparked intense
sectarian clashes across Iraq.

In the towns of Hawijah and Riyadh, outside Kirkuk, hundreds of protesters
demonstrated against the Hussein verdict, the U.S. occupation of Iraq and
the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, carrying
Hussein's picture and chanting, "Yes, yes, to the leader Saddam Hussein"
and, "Death, death, to the America and Maliki government."

In Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite slum in eastern Baghdad with 2.5 million
residents, people defied the curfew blanketing the rest of Baghdad and
celebrated the verdict by passing out sweets to children and performing
celebratory dances in the streets. Residents contacted by telephone said
that life had returned to normal, with cars and buses in the streets, shops
opened and people going about their daily business. They said police made no
attempt to enforce the curfew in the area, which is controlled by the Mahdi
Army, a militia led by anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

"We don't care about the curfew in our city," said a 32-year-old blacksmith,
referring to Sadr City. "But we respect the curfew outside" in the rest of
Baghdad, he said. "In our city, no one can force us to stay in our homes.
The Mahdi Army will protect us."

While President Bush on Sunday called Hussein's trial and verdict "a
milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with
the rule of law," British Prime Minister Tony Blair, America's closest ally
in Iraq, was more circumspect Monday, saying he and his party opposed the
death penalty for Hussein -- or anyone -- on principle.

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As far as what I would have done considering Saddam Hussein, either:

1)  Privately issued orders that, if found, Saddam was to be shot on sight,
or

2)  Once apprehended, turn Saddam Hussein over to the Kurds.

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.