THINNING THE RANK:

Revenge killings thin ex-Baathists' ranks: Former members gunned down in streets of Basra (Joel Brinkley, November 1, 2003 , New York Times)

Over the past month, more than a dozen former senior members of Saddam Hussein's government have been shot dead in the streets of this normally peaceful city -- two of them this week alone, both shot in the head at close range. [...]

When the United States laid out its plans for governing Iraq early this year, officials predicted a large wave of revenge killings in Baghdad and across the country. Decades of pent-up anger over repression, torture and death at the hands of Hussein's government would find voice in tens of thousands of Iraqis, suddenly freed to say and do what they wanted with their former rulers.

But after many deadly revenge attacks in the first few weeks after the fall of Baghdad, few had been reported since -- there or anywhere else -- until the killing resumed in Basra a month ago. The city is home to a large Shiite population; the Shiites were often a target of Hussein's repression.

"It's a big problem here in the south now," said Capt. Hussein Falih of the Iraqi police.

It's not a problem. It's a necessary solution to a problem.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 1, 2003 9:41 AM