[Prost1]

The de-baathification and de-nazification are not comparable.

Iraq is a hodgepodge of cultures and peoples, some with long standing (millenium) hatred one against the other.
The shia in charge of the police in the north is as bad as the sunni in charge in the south.

It would have been better to constitute a Shia security force for their area and Sunni for their area. Since Baghdad in mixed, it would have been best to use the Euphrates as a DMZ and move entire communities from one side to the other and eliminate the slums while they were at it.

IOW and imo, there were better options than what Bremer chose. We shall soon see if Saddam and his henchman are executed, who from the Sunni tribes comes forward as the leader. I am thinking it might be a red-headed guy.

[Cheburashka]

The de-baathification and de-nazification are not comparable.
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They are exactly comparable. You have to break up the political ties in the old Iraqi Army. That's the only way you break up old habits of obedience, old ways of doing things. Otherwise evetyone's standing around waiting for the Americans to leave, whereupon things will return to "normal".

Separate Sunni and Shiite security forces may or may not have been a good idea, but the old Iraqi Army would have had to have been dissolved anyway.

Another thing I remember is that the Kurds demanded the abolition of the Baathist army, or they wanted their own state.