IRAQ: Happy Birthday?

General Karim Kassem’s revolution will be one year old on July 14, and sweltering Baghdad last week was alive with preparations for the great day. Triumphal arches rose in the streets, and a new Iraqi flag—red, black, green and yellow—was going up on lampposts.

But there was little festive mood in the yellow-walled Defense Ministry. There sat Premier Kassem, who had let the Communists in his entourage rise to power in order to prevent Nasserites from taking over his revolution. Now at last he saw the need to prevent the Communists from taking over the revolution in turn, and sought to create a third group in Iraq loyal to him instead of to Cairo or Moscow. Against the advice of the Communists, who cry for blood vengeance, Kassem last week continued to release political prisoners from jail, and declared an amnesty for all those “who indulged in conflict which endangered the security and order of the country.” Kassem also fired Baghdad’s pro-Communist police chief, Abdul Baki Kadhim, replacing him with one of his own supporters, Taha Shaikly, who promptly cracked down on Communist demonstrations.

Next Kassem moved against the Popular Resistance Force, the Communist-backed civilian militia that helped the army and police quell the March revolt, then stayed on as “bridge guards” and “night security patrols” long after they were needed. The nation is now secure, said Kassem, and no longer needs such special forces. Kassem did all this in his usual indirect fashion, without specifically denouncing the Communists. He obviously wanted no unscheduled fireworks to go off with a bang before his own July 14 festivities.