Meanwhile: over there! (Thanks a bunch, W!)

Oh, the irony!

Iraq Resists Pleas by U.S. to Placate Hussein’s Party
By SAM DAGHER, NYT
Published: April 25, 2009
BAGHDAD — On April 18, American and British officials from a secretive unit called the Force Strategic Engagement Cell flew to Jordan to try to persuade one of Saddam Hussein’s top generals — the commander of the final defense of Baghdad in 2003 — to return home to resume efforts to make peace with the new Iraq.

But the Iraqi commander, Lt. Gen. Raad Majid al-Hamdani, rebuffed them.

After a year of halting talks mediated by the Americans, he said, he concluded that Iraq’s leader, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, simply was not interested in reconciliation.

Uh... would "one of Saddam Hussein’s top generals" be a former member of Saddam's Ba'ath Party?

The same Ba'ath Party that Our Man in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, anathemized, de-legitimized, and precluded from any & all govt positions (even teaching)?
THAT Ba'ath Party?

Just asking.

Now we want al-Maliki to kiss & make up? After our ham-fisted actions drove the Ba'athists out of public life completely?
After we established the precedent for complete, total, and absolute de-Ba'athification?

Again, just asking.

Way to go, W! - thanks a lot!