Iraq's Next Fault Line

By Christopher Allbritton

The Bush administration has hailed the formation of a new Iraqi government as a major step toward bringing stability to the country. But behind the scenes, some U.S. officials are fretting about Iraqi plans to remove as many as 9,000 members of the country's security, intelligence and police services who have been identified as former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath regime. Such a move could wreck the Iraqi forces that the U.S. has spent two years and $5 billion trying to train, according to U.S. officials in Baghdad and Washington. They are also worried that a sweeping de-Baathification order could toss out thousands of former mid-level men who are cooperating with the U.S. against the insurgency. "We want to see the Iraqi security forces take a bigger role," says a U.S. official in Baghdad. "Purging these people without reference to their loyalty now or their competence will set that back."

The de-Baathification push is being led by members of the Shi'ite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance, the most powerful bloc in the new government, who accuse outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi of packing the country's security apparatus with former Baathists. The issue is so sensitive that during a mid-April visit to Baghdad, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld delivered a private warning to new Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari that the U.S. does not support a mass purge.

With the insurgency still raging, some Iraqis fear that the de-Baathification order will drive newly unemployed officers into the arms of the rebels. Says an Iraqi captain, who asked to be identified by his nickname, Abu Laith: "If the government has 1,000 enemies now, they will have 10,000 enemies." --By Christopher Allbritton