Leftists can deal with Baathists, because the Baathists are like leftists

Secular elitists interested in harnassing power to serve their own wanton desires and inflict their unpopular agenda on the majority. The left has always understood dictators like Saddam. He has done nothing that a good leftist dictator hasn't already done. Purges, revenge killings, mass murder, all in a day's work for the left. That's why the Dems are again demanding the return of Saddamists to their former positions.

The truth is, the left is terrified of religious Muslims, like Muqtada al-Sadr and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. The turbans really freak out the left. They don't mind the guys that run around in uniforms all the time, like Castro and Hussein because it reminds them of their beloved Che Guevara.