“If my finger was a Baathist, I’d cut it off!”

Now that’s dedication! If anyone is looking for some reasons why we invaded Iraq, try looking here:

Graffiti denouncing Baathists covers many walls in the area once known as Saddam City. Squatters and local Muslim clerics have taken over the party’s two main headquarters.

“If my finger was a Baathist, I’d cut it off,” reads one spray-painted slogan. “Death to the Baath,” proclaims another.

The mainly Shi’ite population of the area suffered bitterly under the Baath administration, which discriminated against them and brutally quashed uprisings in the 1990s.

Residents say almost all of them have lost a relative to Saddam or his Baathists and the desire for revenge runs deep.