Just a remind:
Before 2003 all members and agents of Iraqi government had to be registered member of Ba'ath Party. Including low-level public employees.
Any Iraqi with political career before that had to be a registered Ba'ath.
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When US took over, the only way to democratize the country was to prevent any registered Ba'ath from occupying government offices. There was no one capable to govern the country since those were all Ba'aths.
Germany had the same problem right after 1945.
That was a bad assumption, since they couldn't truly 'democratize' the country while excluding the people who used to run it.
There was also the issue with America looking for people who more 'compliant' than 'capable'. Likely, plenty were capable, and overlooked for it.