De-Baathification is largely a ruse

The Iraqi government has branded an appeal panel's decision to suspend a ban on candidates suspected of having links to the Baath party as illegal.

If the panel's decision had been accepted by all parties concerned, it would have been to the advantage of the country. People with links to the Baath party may prove to be an asset to Iraq because most of them, unlike the majority of those who make up the current government, know how to run a state.

The new de-Baathification committee also refused to acknowledge the panel's decision, and the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq announced that it is waiting for a decision from the country's highest court to resolve the issue.

No doubt this will result in new arguments and in Iraq nothing is resolved without bloodshed, so the country will be expecting a new wave of explosions that will claim the lives of many innocent people.

It did not come as a surprise that US Vice-President Joe Biden was able to persuade the panel to shift its position.

Most Iraqis will trust the US over Iran, because Iran has deep-rooted designs in Iraq, the least of which is transforming the country into Iran's backyard, while the US insists that it wants to pull out of Iraq and end the long invasion that is costing it money and human lives.

If the panel's decision is accepted by all concerned, the problem will be postponed to after the elections.

However, Biden did mention fleetingly a point that was not publicised on the Iraqi side. He said people with links to the Baath party should either be further investigated after the elections or asked to take an oath denouncing the banned Baath party. In other words, Biden kept the door open for former Baathists to join Iraq's political process.

Among Iraq's 22 million citizens of the year 2000, more than six million were registered members of the Arab Baath Socialist Party. The number seems terribly high, but Iraqis who lived in Iraq during the 35 years of Baath reign know there was no alternative.

No choice

People were practically forced into becoming party members, and millions of Iraqis who were Baath party members rejoiced when the Baath reign of terror ended in 2003.

Paul Bremer, who took control of the Coalition Provisional Authority in late April of 2003, started the de-Baathification process. As a result, 16,000 teachers, technical staff at ministries and countless civil servants with a wide range of skills and experience have been fired.

In Mosul, General David Petraeus, the commander the 101st Airborne at the time, allowed local tribal leaders to be involved in the decision-making process.

Because of the man's insight and knowledge of the area's politics and international relations, it was evident to him that there was a vast difference between hardcore Baath party members and the greater number of party members who joined the party to be able to live in peace.

Petraeus, who is regarded as the best thing that has happened to Iraq in a very long time, understood that keeping people working would prevent an insurgency from taking place. And indeed, it was through Petraeus' efforts that the country witnessed a semblance of stability and security after four years of intensive bloodshed in 2007.

However, the situation eventually got worse with the appointment of Ali Al Lami to head the Supreme National Committee for de-Baathification that came to be known as the Accountability and Justice Commission.

Al Lami, who spent some time in a US-run prison in Iraq on suspicion of being an important commander of an Iran-backed group, accused Petraeus of supporting the Baathists, after the general said in an interview that the Accountability and Justice Commission had seemingly hijacked the new organisation to the benefit of the Iranian Quds force. Needless to say, the accusation is both false and malicious. In the same interview, Petraeus pinpointed the defect in the whole process, as he indicated that 55 per cent of the 500 people on the banned list are Shiite and 45 per cent are Sunni.

Petraeus hit the bullseye. Due to the new de-Baathification committee's close relations and cooperation with Iran, the process targeted both secular Shiites and Sunnis to buy space and secure votes for the religious parties who lost the tolerance and acceptance of a large portion of the Iraqi people due to their very poor performance during the last four years.

Iranian agenda

Iran enjoys very good relations with the Shiite coalition, and the de-Baathification committee which is mostly made up of coalition members is pro-Iranian. Hence, its decisions are influenced by Iran, which wants Iraq to be ruled by parties that support its agenda in the region.

The majority of Iraqis do not want the Baath party back in power. However, Iraq's government and the different committees concerned have not grasped the fact that the Baath party will never be interested in being a part of a democratic government.

Thirty-five years of ruling Iraq has left no trace of a doubt that the Baath party is totalitarian. It will never tolerate sharing power with another party or group.

This in itself is an indicator that the majority of individuals who were once linked to the Baath party but now wish to participate in elections are not serving the party.

For the Baath party, it is all or nothing.