Whitewash Wiki: Neo-Cons Change "Occupying" Iraq to "Liberating" Iraq

Post-Saddam

In June 2003, the US-led liberating forces in Iraq banned the Ba'th party. Some criticize the additional step the US took — of banning all members of the Ba'th party from the new government, as well as from public schools and colleges — as blocking too many skilled people from participation in the new government. Several teachers have lost their jobs, causing protests and demonstrations at schools and universities. Under the previous rule of the Ba'ath party, one could not reach high positions in the government or in the schools without becoming a party member.

The party outside Iraq

The Iraq-based Ba'th Party had branches in various Arab countries, such as Lebanon, Mauritania and Jordan. After the fall of the Saddam government, many branches have distanced themselves from the central party, such as the branches in Yemen and Sudan.

The branch amongst the Palestinians bears the name of Jabhat al-Tahrir al-'Arabiyah (the Arab Liberation Front, or ALF). ALF formed the major Palestinian political faction in Iraq during the Saddam years.

In Bahrain, Rasul al-Jaishy leads the local pro-Saddam faction of the Ba'th Party, the Nationalist Democratic Rally Society (Jami'at al-Tajammu' al-Qawmi al-Dimuqrati), which in an alliance with radical Islamists opposes the Bahrain government's political reforms.

An Iraq-oriented Ba'th Party branch formerly existed in Syria, which the Syrian government severely repressed. More...