An advance for Iraq's army
THE IRAQI government's announcement last week that it welcomes junior officers from the prewar Iraqi Army to return to service represents not merely the correction of a major postwar Bush administration blunder but also a wise gesture of reconciliation to Iraq's disaffected Sunni Arab population.
Ultimately, Sunni Arabs who have sided with groups waging guerrilla war against the government and the Americans will have to accept two stark truths. The first is that they will accomplish nothing worthwhile for their community by exploding bombs at Shi'ite mosques or by murdering Shi'ite teachers in their schools. The second is that the path to dignity, stability, and prosperity -- for Iraqis of all religious sects and ethnic groups -- must pass through the realm of peaceful political compromise.
By inviting officers from the Ba'athist era up to the rank of major back into military service, the Iraqi government sends the right message to those officers and to the Sunni Arab community that supplied a disproportionate share of the officers in Saddam Hussein's army. It says that the Shi'ites and Kurds who dominate the current government will make every effort to avoid the sectarian war between Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs that the foreign jihadist commander Musab Al-Zarqawi has declared.
There is some risk in the announcement of a policy change that has been underway informally for more than a year. It is a near certainty that jihadist and Ba'athist groups will seek to infiltrate the army officer corps with spies and informants. So there must be a careful vetting of the reinstated officers. There may even be occasions when an infiltrator is found out and, instead of being subjected to a court martial, is turned into a double agent who informs to the government on the Ba'athists or Islamists who tried to insert him into the army as a spy. The great danger in the new policy is that it might fan a climate of mistrust, one in which loyal soldiers will be suspicious of reinstated officers from the prewar army and Sunni Arabs who reenlist will be regarded as turncoats in their own communities.
Nonetheless, Iraq needs a diverse, competent army capable of resisting jihadist and Ba'athist guerrillas after the departure of US forces and able to defend the country's borders against meddlesome neighbors. The parliamentary elections coming up on Dec. 15 can be expected to give Sunni Arabs representation in proportion to their share of the population thanks to an electoral law dividing the country into 18 provincial constituencies. It is crucial that all Iraqi voters know they will have a national army, not an army that merely places sectarian militias in a national uniform.
