Welcome Back, Baathists

Allawi Presses Effort to Bring Back Baathists. Fair enough. Some of the purged Baathists were not pro-Saddam, but just in it for the perks. Is it safer, though, to trust that we (or Allawi, himself a former Baathist with a purportedly murderous past) can find the bad apples -- those aiding the insurgents -- while allowing the good guys back into government? I'm skeptical. For every ex-Baathist SOB to whom we give power, we should consider a direct, positive correlation with our reduced abilities to act clandestinely in that individual's government office. Tribal ties run deeply -- and we are part of no-one's tribe.