Against my own policy, I engaged with some people who are Ba’ath supporters and very likely connected to former members of its regime, after they questioned the truth about a story I published on Saddam’s atrocities.

I tagged the nephew of the victim for the sake of authenticating the story. They pretended to be civilized and offered to ‘ask around’ about the fate of the missing. I played along. That’s what they came up with:

They claimed to have asked an interrogator in Saddam’s secret police whose response was: Story untrue, secret dungeons a myth unless they were ‘Iranian proxy criminals’ (a whistle for Shia opposition), who wouldn’t gotten ‘what they deserve.’

Now, I am not 1% surprised. But it still baffles me how people like these get to be free, probably typing their responses from their cozy homes somewhere safe in London or Paris, not worrying a bit that someone is going to hold them accountable for what they did to Iraqis.

Will the victims ever get justice? Is our judicial system that broken? How do we allow normalizing such rhetoric? Criminals get away everywhere, but the number of Ba’athis amongst us who still stand by their beliefs and don’t regret their crimes is abnormal.

All I can say is that despite Iraq’s problems, as long as people like these are not brought to justice, Iraq’s troubles will go on. They either create them, or make them worse. AQI and Daesh are clear examples, but many made it back into our security forces and hold public posts.

One of the most useless suggestions and inaccurate claims is that we should not talk about them in order not to empower them as they lost influence. Problems don’t solve themselves. The past isn't forgotten. Many people are still hurting from the past as much as the present.

Iraq’s current dire situation provides this ill-minded lot with many opportunities to cause harm.

But let’s keep ignoring them. And let’s ignore the victims’ cries for justice. It all happened many years ago and today, we have so many problems, right!?

#fail