November 23, 2003

• [...]under orders from Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld, Bremer tried to get rid of former Baathists in the Iraqi government by removing the top six layers of bureaucracy[...] I wonder firstly what the other layers of bureaucracy are, and secondly what sort of teachers the articles are referring to - it's such a non-specific term. They could actually be referring to university-level teachers, or military instructors, or something we have no clue about. I mean, what sort of threat is a person who teaches six-year-olds how to add and subtract? It's certainly interesting to compare Rumsfeld's policies with the US's policies in post-WW2 Germany - just the fact that so many policies did more harm than good, and it seems to be working out that way here too.
• Okay, "schoolteachers" was probably a bit disingenuous, but I can't see how 28,000 less teachers of any kind is going to help. That's 28,000 more unemployed and pissed-off people and their families, quite apart from the education issue. I would also suggest that quite a few of these people joined the Party purely to gain professional advancement
• I'm having trouble seeing the story - is registration required?
• Looks fine to me. You're probably the victim of an old voodoo curse.
• I was upset about this too--If they get rid of all the baathists (who I've heard held the vast majority of positions in the government, military, civil service jobs, etc), who will be there who knows how things work? And I'm sure many of them just joined bec. you had to to get work.
• Wow, amberglow's comment was remarkably prescient.
• But it would seem that, no, suddenly old Nickdanger's started a totally bizarre trend-
• I think you're working for K.R.E.A.P., you dastardly nickdanger, you.
• I hear he's a double agent