De-Ba'athification

"The Ba'ath, not the rosy picture that once led Michel Aflaq to write of unification of all Arabs, but the one we, Iraqis and Syrians came to know it as part of our being, is a racist, chauvinistic, brutal ideology. This is not to exclude Michel Aflaq from the brutal aspect of the Ba'ath, it is merely to blame he who killed instead of he from whom the killer got his inspiration. Afterall, it is not fair to blame the misery that was Stalin's Soviet Union on Karl Marx.

Ba'athifying Iraq, through tactics of fear and sheer military power will remain Saddam's infamous legacy for years if not decades to come. In today's Iraq, Saddam's orphans and those whom he made loyal are forced to live in the same society in an increasingly confused country.

To become anything, one had to be a Ba'athist first, some in Iraq would like us to believe. That logic is dangerously incorrect, if true, it means that survival and Ba'ath Party membership are not mutually exclusive. I don't want to yell out loud and say, "bullshit," but I am going to say it anyway, BULLSHIT"
Dear Baghdad