Germany, Japan and the De-Baathification of Iraq
Abstract
The Bush administration is laying plans for a rehabilitation of post-war Iraq that, according to the New York Times, are "the most ambitious American effort to administer a country since the occupations of Japan and Germany at the end of World War II." These plans include trials for Saddam's "key" senior officials, backed by a "truth and reconciliation" process to "publicly shame but not necessarily punish, human rights violators." Iraq's repressive state institutions like revolutionary courts and the special security organizations will be eliminated, "but much of the rest of the government will be reformed and kept," the Times reports. "Officials, referring to the ruling Baath Party, say `de-Baathification' of the nation will be at least as complex as denazification was in Germany." The hope, according to the Times, is that the transition to a stable government can be completed rapidly, with U.S. troops evacuated from Iraq within eighteen Given the World War II analogy that apparently guides U.S. policy for a transition to a stable, democratic, post-Saddam Iraq, what lessons might American policymakers draw from our "nation-building" experience in post-1945 Germany and Japan? The Bush administration's goal is to disarm Iraq. But it must make certain that Iraq never again troubles the stability of the Persian Gulf region. For this to happen, Saddam'% ambitions to lead the Arab world in the "liberation" of Jerusalem must be utterly discredited, both in the eyes of his own people and of the world, especially the Arab world. This will probably require, as in Germany and Japan after 1945, an unambiguous military defeat of Baathist Iraq, followed by war crimes trials. The risk for the United States is that defeat, trials and a politic of "public shaming" may make Iraqis less, not more, receptive to a democratization process because Saddam has already effectively "de-Baathicized" his own people.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 07, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA485192
Entities
People
- Douglas Porch
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School