News reports this week say that Iraq is reinstating some 20,000 officers who were part of Saddam Hussein’s army. Huh? Didn’t we just dismantle that army after first whipping them, throwing their murderous leader out of office, and then hanging him? I don’t get it.

Weren’t they part of the evil regime that terrorized the nation and their neighboring countries? I mean, Saddam himself wasn’t the only bad guy in Iraq, was he? Without his army of thugs behind him, how could he have gotten away with so much for so long? If these are good men, why didn’t they take him down a long time ago? If they were not part of the solution, then weren’t they part of the problem?

These are not nice people. Most of the officers being reinstated are Sunnis, who dominated Saddam’s regime. After Saddam fell, many of them took their experience in bloodletting and joined the insurgents, and are responsible for many American deaths in the ongoing efforts to bring peace to this warlike land.

What’s to stop these clowns from rearming themselves and putting another dictator in place, so we have to go back and do the same thing all over again in fifteen or twenty years?  Did we give the Nazis control of the German army once Adolph Hitler killed himself and we beat Germany into submission?

Hitler wasn’t the only sadist killing and torturing people in concentration camps. It took a lot of sick bastards to do what they did during the Nazi regime. The same for Saddam Hussein. His underlings were just as evil as he was, and putting them back in charge of Iraq’s army is a recipe for disaster. But it shows you the thinking of that nation. They have not learned from their recent history, and I fear that we are doomed to relive it all over again.

I don’t get this whole idea that once the bullets stop flying, we all shake hands and walk away friends. We’re talking war, not a football game. Bad guys are bad guys, and their very nature doesn’t change just because the politicians decide we have achieved whatever lofty goals they set in the LaLa Land they live in.

How about if we give released felons who served time for violent crimes a handgun and a ski mask when they walk out of prison?


11 Comments on I Don’t Get It

  1. Tom Marlatt says:

    Look back – History DOES repeat itself. We just don’t seem to get it.

  2. Rex says:

    I think you are right on this issue. But with the current administration, I am not surprised. We should pull our troops out and let the USAF level the place. As you said, this is war not a football game.

    Remember, if you love your freedom, thank a U.S. Military Veteran.


  3. You are barking up the wrong tree Nick. This reinstatement is part of a policy enacted in 2008 to try to correct the mistakes that were made at the time of the Iraq invasion. At that time the provisional government (read United States) purged all of the Ba’ath party members from government – big mistake. Turns out these were the only people who had the education and ability to run things and this contributed to the unfortunate disintegration of Iraq.

    See this entry from Wikipedia:


    So, with these actions, belatedly started under the Bush administration, we are finally starting to correct some of the damage we did in Iraq.

  4. Illinois Snowbird says:

    I am a Yankee from a long line of Yankee’s! My wife is a Southerner. We both trace our roots back to family that fought in the Civil War.

    What really contributed to the success of this country? We let those treasonous, slave holding, Johnny Reb’s back into the the affairs of government … they vote and even hold office. I shutter to think what would be the situation if that would not have happened. Would we have Southern Terrorist setting of bomb in NYC, etc. Sort of like the IRA in Northern Ireland?

    So Iraq has to have some kind of reconciliation … if government will be possible. It may fail, but it will fail for sure without reconciliation .

  5. Gene Teggatz says:

    I agree with Dennis. When we banned all of the Ba’ath members from the military, we created the insurgents. They should have been kept on the payroll, put to work to improve the country “like picking up ordinance that was laying around”. Credit all of this to one leader we appointed to run the country and who’s name I forget. Gene

  6. Christine says:

    My memory remembers the same details that Dennis and Gene picked up on. The complete dismissal of the military structure and the individuals that knew how to keep daily functions of a government organization together came back to bit a certain US leader in the butt. He didn’t get his mission accomplished because the experienced man (and woman) power to accomplish it was missing. Will it be difficult to sort it all out, well of course.

  7. Ben says:

    Germany didn’t need an army for many years; they were protected by western and eastern occupation troops! Iraq, on the other hand, has bad guys to the east (Iran). With Coalition troops pulling out, they will need their army as a deterrent.

  8. Al Hays says:

    The Iraq conflict can be boiled down to a religious war where there can be no winner. Families on both sides have long memories and given any opportunity to get even will do just that. The most stability the country has is with a strong enough dictator to keep both sides in fear and in peace. Each religion needs its own country, but how do they accomplish that?

  9. Steve says:

    It’s too easy to whip up nationalistic frenzy. Level heads rarely prevail when the shouting and shooting starts. The Military-Industrial machine needs retooling. Our great military is ill suited to the role of peace keeper. How do you change that mindset? Rex wants to kill them all? Here’s a dollar. Go to the clue store and get yourself one.

  10. Mark T. says:

    That whole part of the world is one big cesspool. They have been killing each other since before recorded history and they will be long after we pack our bags and go home.

  11. C. Collette says:

    One of the mistakes the US did was banning all former military personal from working for us when these were the trained ones that wanted to be on our side. Most hated Sadam. When we refused, some became insurgents just to pay us back.

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