DeBaathification

Remember the de-Baathification law the Iraqi government passed that kinda sorta seemed like maybe it did the reverse of what the Bush administration said it did? Turns out it does the reverse of what the Bush administration said it did: "More than a dozen Iraqi lawmakers, U.S. officials and former Baathists here and in exile expressed concern in interviews that the law could set off a new purge of ex-Baathists, the opposite of U.S. hopes for the legislation."

Amit Paley and Joshua Partlow have put together an admirably straightforward and well-reported article for The Washington Post so I won't get too upset that they write "the opposite of U.S. hopes for the legislation" rather than "the opposite of Bush administration claims for the legislation." Still, it's noteworthy that not only has this gone awry, but the Bush administration just spent last week telling us it hadn't gone awry.

Comments

What a surprise, Bushco still lying about Iraq after all these years....

Posted by john o. | January 23, 2008 8:33 AM

Indeed, how could anybody conceivably still be surprised by 1) yet another Iraq debacle, or 2) Bush lying about it? It's as "noteworthy" as dog bites man.

Posted by Steve LaBonne | January 23, 2008 8:58 AM

Does Matthew understand written English? "Expressing a concern" that the legislation "could" have bad effects is not the same as "does the reverse of what the Bush administration said it did".

But, hey, Matthew seems to be accepting Ahmad Chalabi's statements hook-line-and-sinker. Who knew that Matthew found Ahmad Chalabi so convincing?!

Posted by Al | January 23, 2008 10:23 AM

al, apparently in pursuit of defending the indefensible, makes clear that he doesn't understand the difference between "one" and "many."

Posted by howard | January 23, 2008 10:54 AM

For those who like stats - and who doesn't! - we now have quantification on the Bush lied, people died front. The center for public integrity counted 935 pre-war lies. The occupation lying count, of course, has yet to be done. What an impressive lying bunch of scoundrels we have disgracing the White House at the moment!

Posted by roger | January 23, 2008 3:13 PM

Prof Juan Cole had the goods on that bill weeks ago. His blog 'Informed Comment' is required reading for the course.

Posted by JohnMcC | January 23, 2008 3:16 PM

It would seem clear that this move is a Maliki partial attempt to derail the coming Iraqi nationalist coalition government by getting more Sunnis knocked out of the government.

It's also likely part of the Bushies "divide and conquer" approach to Iraq: keep the Shia and Sunnis at each others throats while the US oil companies try to loot Iraqi oil via the Kurds and the Shia.

Not working out too well, however. The Kurds hate the central government now because of its support for Turkey on the PKK and a failure to let the Kurds establish a more or less independent Kurdistan, and no oil is moving north anyway due to the government oil and energy ministries being unable to get along. The oil in the south is still moving, if slowly - controlled by the Shia.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | January 23, 2008 9:57 PM