de-Baathification

English

Alternative forms

• debathification

Etymology

Derived from denazification, a similar concept employed against the conquered Nazi government following the Second World War.

Noun

de-Baathification (uncountable)

1. The United States policy of removing Baath party members from Iraqi government positions following the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
   • Anthony Shadid, Night draws near: Iraq's people in the shadow of America's war (2006) p.322:

     From informing the Bush administration that Iraqis would welcome U.S. troops with flowers to urging a methodical and comprehensive de-Baathification program under which tens of thousands of people lost their jobs through guilt by association, she said, the errors in the exiles' counsel only mounted and multiplied.