DeBaathification

Remember the de-Baathification law the Iraqi government passed that kinda sorta seemed like maybe it did the reverse of what the Bush administration said it did? Turns out it does the reverse of what the Bush administration said it did: "More than a dozen Iraqi lawmakers, U.S. officials and former Baathists here and in exile expressed concern in interviews that the law could set off a new purge of ex-Baathists, the opposite of U.S. hopes for the legislation."

Amit Paley and Joshua Partlow have put together an admirably straightforward and well-reported article for The Washington Post so I won't get too upset that they write "the opposite of U.S. hopes for the legislation" rather than "the opposite of Bush administration claims for the legislation." Still, it's noteworthy that not only has this gone awry, but the Bush administration just spent last week telling us it hadn't gone awry.