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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/09/opinion/09BURU.html
How Iraq Can Get Over Its Past
(New York Times) - Ian Buruma How can Iraqis make sure that brutes from the old regime don't poison the wells of post-Saddam Hussein politics? Some form of de-Baathification is clearly needed. Democracy depends on public trust; how can one talk of trust in the rule of law if it is administered by former torturers? Getting rid of the top leaders is the easy part. Saddam Hussein and his sons and their main satraps deserve their own Nuremberg. The difficulty begins with the middle ranks: the prison wardens, university professors, army officers and pen-pushers who carried out murderous orders. How far down the ranks do you go in purging them? Should they be punished, or simply removed from public office?