Iraqi Parliament Passes Benchmark Legislation

Ever since Democrats have had to begin addressing the harsh (for them) reality of the military success that has come in Iraq under General David Petraeus they’ve spun the issue with a bit of moving the goal posts. They point to the lack of political progress in Iraq in certain key areas, and then renew their claims that the war was a mistake/failure/etc. Of course, they ignore the fact that the “troop surge” under Petraeus was intended to stop violence so that said political progress could take place, meaning that progress needed to come after the violence had been stopped, but whatever. The Dems aren’t so much interested in sound analysis of the situation in Iraq as they’re concerned about political convenience and point-scoring.
A problem that’s emerging for them now, however, is that they may soon have to address yet another harsh (for them) reality in Iraq. Namely, political progress.

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s parliament voted Saturday to allow some former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party to reclaim government jobs and said others could receive pensions but could not return to work. President Bush said the legislation was “an important step toward reconciliation.”
The long-delayed bill is the first of several major changes in Iraqi law sought by the Bush administration with the goal of easing ethnic and religious tensions. The 275-seat parliament is still deadlocked over how to share the country’s oil profits, constitutional amendments demanded by minority Sunni Arabs, and a bill spelling out rules for local elections.
The bill, approved Saturday by a unanimous show of hands, seeks to relax restrictions on the rights of members of the now-dissolved Baath party to fill government posts.
It is also designed to reinstate thousands of Baathists dismissed from government jobs after the U.S. invasion — a decision that deepened sectarian tensions between Iraq’s majority Shiites and the once-dominant Sunni Arabs, who believed the firings targeted their community.
The strict implementation of so-called de-Baathification rules also meant that many senior bureaucrats who knew how to run ministries, university departments and state companies ended up unemployed in a country where 35 years of Baath party rule and extensive government involvement in the economy had left tens of thousands of party members in key positions.

We’ve achieved military success in Iraq, now we’re seeing early indications of political success as well. That these things are happening should make honest observers wonder why the Democrats wanted to give up on the war at all instead of working with the President to find solutions to the nation’s problem.
Solutions that, as we see know, have clearly been within our grasp.