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Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0626/p06s01-woiq.html
Iraqis Struggle over Baath Purge
(Christian Science Monitor) - Scott Peterson The problem of de-Baathification is being painted in black and white - while in fact, many Iraqis say, it should be shades of gray. A proclamation on May 16 by American chief of the occupation authority in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, purges the top four ranks of the Baath Party, though party apparatchiks with critical skills who "demonstrated" that they were not committed to the Baath Party under Mr. Hussein could be candidates for exemption. "When they consider every Baath member an enemy, the Americans are putting all of them on the other side of the fence," says Saad Jawad, a political scientist at Baghdad University. "These people are ready to cooperate with the Americans, to work with them. But when you shut them out, they will meet and make an armed cell to fight back."