A rather interesting piece in Kanan Makiya's War Diary on "de-Baathification," and what will need to happen after the war. Worth a read, there are some good points about how although the war is destroying many of the symbols of the regime, Saddam's influence runs much deeper.

The primary structures of his control are not housed neatly in government ministries. In fact, outside of the departments of interior, education, and defense, Saddam's ministries are largely technocratic bureaucracies that are either harmless or useless. The most insidious presence of the Baath Party is in the schools, the universities, the trade unions, the women's organizations, and the youth groups. It is reflected in curricula and in the way teachers have been trained to think; it is evident in the affairs of the mosques--especially the subordination of the appointment of clerics to political considerations; it figures prominently in the practices and mindsets of hundreds of thousands of police officers and army personnel.

Curing themselves of this indoctrination will certainly be no easy task for the Iraqi people. Hopefully, as seen in post-War Germany and an Eastern Europe free from the Iron Curtain, freedom will bring with it patience, determination, and enthusiasm as they work toward their common goal of peace and prosperity.