Captain's Quarters Blog


« Podcast With Claudia Rosett | Main | Guilty Of Acting In Our Own Interest »

December 17, 2006
Amnesty For The Ba'athists

One of the pressing problems in Iraq has been the exclusion of the Sunnis since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime. The new Iraqi government needs to find a way to get the Sunnis engaged in the governance of Iraq without allowing them to dominate it as they have done throughout the nation's history. Nouri al-Maliki has taken a step in that direction this weekend, throwing open the doors to former members of Saddam's security forces, a move that has unnerved Maliki's Shi'a allies and even some Sunnis:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and his Shiite-dominated government reached out to former members of Saddam Hussein's regime Saturday, inviting them to claim government pensions and rejoin the army in a gesture meant to calm the country's sectarian passions.

"The Iraqi army opens its doors to officers and soldiers from the former army who wish to serve the country," Maliki said at a national reconciliation conference of politicians and sectarian leaders in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

Maliki has been under increasing U.S. pressure to improve security forces. But, exposing fissures that have plagued his struggling government as the country descended into civil war, several Shiite and Sunni Arab groups rejected the proposal, saying it would reward insurgents and stalwarts of Hussein's regime.

Therein lies the problem. If Iraq is to survive and thrive in its post-Saddam version as a representative democracy, then at some point the various factions will have to find a way to reconcile their differences. The Shi'ites lived under the thumb of the Sunnis in the region for decades as Iraq and for centuries prior to that as the Ottoman Empire. They have battled the Sunnis since 2003, and the Sunnis have battled them in return. That cycle shows no evidence of slowing down at the moment.

The only end to this will come when the factions move beyond the past and work towards the future. Maliki wants to jump-start this process by eliminating one of the barriers to Sunni participation, and it's the right thing to do, as long as it's properly managed. Regime leaders need to face prosecution, and they have, but Iraq had too many lower-level Ba'athists to exclude them all indefinitely and still get any significant Sunni participation in the government.

At some point, the Iraqis have to learn to write off the past, and it won't be easy. The Arab tribal culture places a high premium on blood revenge for insults and attacks. The Iraqi government and the Coalition partners have to find ways to address that outside of the cycle of violence without undermining its deterrent effect until Iraqi security forces can keep the peace themselves. Arabs aren't the only people with this problem, either, as Westerners get reminded once a generation in the Balkans. That shows how long it takes to change paradigms, and the level of commitment needed to endure through a reconciliation.

This will not provide a complete solution to the problem, but it is a necessary first step. De-Baathification had its uses in the early days of occupation, but it has been a stumbling block for quite a while now. The Iraqis need to reconcile all of its internal factions to create a working civil society and to rebuild its infrastructure. Deliberately excluding the Sunnis only continues to divide the nation along sectarian lines. If they can agree to forgive all but those who crafted and carried out the worst of the atrocities, they could emulate South Africa and set their nation on a new course towards unity.

Sphere It Digg! View blog reactions
Posted by Ed Morrissey at December 17, 2006 8:43 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry is

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Amnesty For The Ba'athists:

» Amnesty For The Ba'athists from Bill's Bites
Iraqi PM invites Saddam officers to return to army BAGHDAD, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Saturday Iraqi army officers of all ranks sacked after the U.S. invasion in 2003 would be allowed to reapply [Read More]

Tracked on December 17, 2006 11:12 AM

» Hamas: A Vote will Explode the Region from Mensa Barbie Welcomes You
This morning, another new ceasefire accord, confirmed by Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan; stipulates that armed men must stop circulating on the streets. (Hahaha!) [Read More]

Tracked on December 18, 2006 9:17 AM

» Reconciliation: Hopes for Strength in Iraq from Mensa Barbie Welcomes You
The proposal was designed to unite and meet the best interests of Peace and reconciliation, amongst all those who will contribute to the stability of the Iraqi government...The Captain has this: "De-Baathification had its uses in the early days of oc... [Read More]

Tracked on December 19, 2006 12:08 AM

>Comments


Design & Skinning by:
m2 web studios





blog advertising



button1.jpg

Proud Ex-Pat Member of the Bear Flag League!