Iraq law to lift ban on Baathists

According to the BBC, the Iraqi government is going to introduce to it's parliament a new law to reform the de-Baathification procedures that occurred after Saddam's removal.

The Iraqi government plans to bring in a new law to allow former members of ex-president Saddam Hussein's Baath party to return to official posts.

The law creates a three-month period for the ex-members to be challenged, after which they will be immune from prosecution over the Saddam era.

If ratified, it will replace the de-Baathification programme that was created to eject key party members.

I think this is good news if it passes. Coupled with the new Iraqi Oil Law that will also be presented to the Iraqi Parliament in the next month or so, it will really help to bring in the moderate Sunnis to cooperate with the government. If Iraq is going to return to peace and stay a single country, the different ethnic groups are going to have to trust each other and settle their disputes politically instead of with car bombs and death squads.

With some of the Sunni Tribes in the Anbar province already starting to fight the Al Qaeda groups in their cities, knowing that they will get a fair share of oil revenue and their jobs and pensions back will help their motivation.

The last big political hurdle if those two laws are passed, is reforms to the Constitution that all sides can agree too. I think that will be the hardest of the three. They have set up committees to explore it but I think it will take awhile before anything happens.