I would agree with you, T-bird, that Ba'ath Party sympolthisers are rare. Unfortunately, that's not quite the way the occupiers see it. They have rounded up thousnads of folks who are presumed guilty and are imprisoned by, ahhh, the occupiers. Also, if you had anything much greater than an *entry level* position in Saddam's government, yer' toast... Forget going back to running the sewage treatment plant. If yer not killed or imprisoned you'll be lucky to find even entry level employment...

Problem is that most of the folks in Saddam's government weren't bad guys. They didn't rape women. They didn't kill anyone or even have any beaten up. Most were. like most of us, just trying to get along. If anything, they represented an upper middle class. They were educated folks... But, should the US have its way in pushing a political system onto folks who don't have a clue about, these folks will most certainly absent from experiement... Yeah, you don't read much about this because it doesn't mix with the rah, rah PR mythology that the Bush/Blair folks shout 24/7 but there have been several pieces on Democracy Now about it....

One thing is fir sure, Saddam of Bush, the prisons stay full....

Bobert