…reminiscent, at the very least, of the old boss:
It has become increasingly apparent that Washington cannot restore governance to Baghdad without resorting to the party which for decades controlled every aspect of life under the regime.
It has equally become apparent that the Ba’ath party – whose neighbourhood spy cells were as feared as the state intelligence apparatus – will survive in some form, either through the appeal of its founding ideals, or through the rank opportunism of its millions of members.
“The coming bureaucracy will be overwhelmed by Ba’athists. They had loyalty to Saddam Hussein, and now they have loyalty to foreign invaders,” said Wamidh Nadhmi, a political science professor at Baghdad University who broke with the Ba’ath in 1961, and is trying to organise a new political grouping.