Senor noted that the policy prohibits senior Baath Party officials who had close ties to the now-defunct Saddam Hussein regime from obtaining positions within the new Iraqi government. An extensive vetting process, he pointed out, is used to separate Iraqis who'd merely been party members from hardcore Baathists with "blood on their hands."
Regarding current military operations in Iraq, coalition military spokesman Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt reported that a Bulgarian patrol was involved today in a firefight with enemy militia in Karbala. One coalition troop was wounded...and later died.
U.S. and coalition forces are prepared to resume offensive operations against entrenched enemy forces in Fallujah....within days if tenets of an April 9 cease-fire agreement aren't met.
"We have no doubt in our minds that the people inside Fallujah understand what's at stake here," Kimmitt said. "They understand what they have to deliver."
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Saddam loyalists, deadenders, evildoers, terrorists => Ba'athists
Iraqis who joined the party to prevent Saddam's neighborhood thugs from torturing and killing their children, raping their wives, or imprisoning (executing) their male relatives - after a lengthy 'vetting' process - can serve today.
Same basic policy, same corrupt press sowing dissent, emboldening our enemy, discouraging the longsuffering Iraqi people, and endangering our troops - our war efforts - the civilized world.