IRAQ GREEN ARMBANDS, RED BLOOD A WEEK AFTER THE OVERTHROW IRAQ'S DICTATOR 
ABDUL KARIM KASSEM, THE CRACK OF RIFLE FIRE STILL ECHOED IN 
BAGHDAD'S LIBERATION SQUARE . TANKS AND ARMORED CARS KEPT STERN VIGIL 
AT EVERY IMPORTANT INTERSECTION . SCURRYING EVERYWHERE WERE THE LITTLE SQUADS 
OF MEN WEARING GREEN ARMBANDS FERRETS WHO SOUGHT TO FIND AND 
TO CRUSH THE LAST REMAINING OPPOSITION TO REBEL PRESIDENT ABDUL SALAM 
AREF AND HIS MYSTERIOUS REVOLUTIONARY BACKERS . WHO WERE THESE NEW 
RULERS ? IN THE MODERN MODE, AREF, 41, GRITTED HIS TEETH 
AND PRESENTED HIMSELF AT THE BAGHDAD HOTEL FOR THE INEVITABLE PRESS 
CONFERENCE WITH THE SWARM OF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS, AN ORDEAL HE SEEMED 
TO REGARD AS IN SOME WAYS WORSE THAN THE HISTORIC NIGHT 
OF THE COUP ITSELF . MORE THAN A HUNDRED SHOUTING REPORTERS 
AND PHOTOGRAPHERS PUSHED ASIDE HIS TOMMY-GUN-WAVING GUARD AND CROWDED AROUND IRAQ'S 
BOSS TO HEAR AREF SPEAK FREELY ABOUT THE AIMS AND PURPOSES 
OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT . HE SAID SOMETHING ABOUT AN END 
TO ONE-MAN RULE, FRIENDSHIP WITH ALL ARAB STATES, AND THE " 
OVERCOMING OF ALL THE DIFFICULTIES FACING THE IRAQI PEOPLE . " 
BUT HE WAS MYSTERIOUSLY SILENT ABOUT THE SIZE OR MEMBERSHIP OF 
THE ALL-POWERFUL NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE REVOLUTIONARY COMMAND, WHICH ORGANIZED AND 
LED THE REVOLT AGAINST KASSEM . NO PERSONALITIES . SAID AREF 
: " THIS IS A SECRET WHICH MUST REMAIN A SECRET 
FOR MANY REASONS . " ASKED WHY, ENGLISHSPEAKING AREF REPLIED VOLUBLY 
IN ARABIC . PRESSED AGAIN FOR AN ANSWER, AREF SUDDENLY ANNOUNCED, 
" THE CONFERENCE IS CLOSED, " AND DEPARTED, SURROUNDED BY HIS 
GUARDS . THE REASON FOR SUCH SECRECY SEEMS TO BE A 
GENERAL REVULSION AGAINST THE SELFGLORIFICATION OF KASSEM'S FOUR-YEAR DICTATORSHIP . " 
WE REVOLTED AGAINST THE CULT OF PERSONALITY, " EXPLAINED NEW FOREIGN 
MINISTER TALIB HUSSEIN SHABIB, 32 . TO THE KEY QUESTION OF 
WHO IS BOSS OF THE NEW IRAQ, THE ANSWER SEEMS TO 
BE : AT THE MOMENT, NO ONE MAN . PRESIDENT AREF 
CANNOT MAKE MAJOR DECISIONS WITHOUT THE CONCURRENCE OF THE MYSTERIOUS NATIONAL 
COUNCIL . BUT HIGHLY VISIBLE WAS THE NEW 21-MAN CABINET, AND 
MOST WESTERN OBSERVERS LIKED WHAT THEY SAW . SAID ONE : 
" IN GENERAL, THEY'RE A TOPNOTCH BUNCH OF RESPONSIBLE, EAGER, EXCEPTIONALLY 
WELL-EDUCATED PEOPLE . " MANY OF THE MINISTERS HAVE LIVED OR 
HAVE BEEN EDUCATED IN THE WEST, RANGING FROM FOREIGN MINISTER SHABIB, 
WHO GRADUATED FROM LONDON UNIVERSITY AND IS MARRIED TO AN ENGLISHWOMAN, 
TO FINANCE MINISTER SALIH KUBBA, WHO ATTENDED THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
AND HAS AN INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION AS AN ECONOMIST . SEVEN OF 
THE NEW CABINET MINISTERS WERE IN KASSEM'S CONCENTRATION CAMP AT RASHID 
MILITARY BASE UNTIL THE REBELS BROKE DOWN THE GATES DURING THE 
COUP . THE BAATH IDEA . THE NEW GOVERNMENT IS CLEARLY 
ANTI-COMMUNIST, AND ALL BUT FIVE MINISTERS ARE EITHER MEMBERS OF OR 
CLOSELY LINKED TO THE BAATH (RENAISSANCE) PARTY . MORE AN IDEA 
THAN AN IDEOLOGY, THE BASIC BAATH DOCTRINE INSISTS THAT " THERE 
ARE NO ARAB NATIONS ; THERE IS ONLY ONE ARAB NATION 
. " THIS CREED IS, OF COURSE, WARMLY EMBRACED BY EGYPT'S 
GAMAL ABDEL NASSER, BUT AREF AND IRAQ'S BAATH PARTY SEEM HARDLY 
EAGER TO FALL UNDER CAIRO'S DOMINATION . THE BAATHIST LEADERS IN 
IRAQ, IN FACT, HAVE RESHAPED THEIR DOCTRINE OF ARAB UNITY INTO 
A CONCEPT OF FEDERATION OF ARAB STATES WITHOUT A CENTRALIZED DICTATORSHIP 
. THIS COULD MEAN ANYTHING, INCLUDING A REVIVAL OF THE OLD 
CONCEPT OF LOOSE UNITY IN THE " FERTILE CRESCENT " IRAQ, 
SYRIA, JORDAN AND LEBANON . ALREADY SYRIA, HAVING BROKEN FREE FROM 
NASSER, WAS PROPOSING FEDERATION TO IRAQ'S NEW LEADERS . THE IDEAS 
OF THE NEW IRAQIS SEEM LIBERAL, HUMANE AND DEMOCRATIC . BUT 
SO DID KASSEM'S PROGRAM WHEN HE FIRST SEIZED POWER ; HIS 
REIGN SWIFTLY DRIFTED TO BRUTALITY AND DEGRADATION . NORMAL TORPOR . 
BY WEEK'S END IRAQ SEEMED SETTLING DOWN INTO THE NORMAL TORPOR 
OF AN ARAB STATE AFTER A COUP D'ETAT . OIL FLOWED 
UNINTERRUPTEDLY THROUGH THE PIPELINES TO THE MEDITERRANEAN . SHOPS, SCHOOLS, AND 
GOVERNMENT OFFICES REOPENED . THE CURFEW WAS GRADUALLY EXTENDED FROM 3 
IN THE AFTERNOON UNTIL 11 AT NIGHT, AND IN THE COFFEEHOUSES 
MEN WERE GOSSIPING AND PLAYING BACKGAMMON . THE LOCAL COMMUNISTS, THE 
ONLY GROUP STILL SUPPORTING THE DISCREDITED KASSEM REGIME, WERE BEING STRIDENTLY 
URGED BY MOSCOW'S POWERFUL ARABIC VOICE IN EAST GERMANY TO " 
STRUGGLE AGAINST THE FASCIST IMPERIALIST REGIME NOW FOISTED ON IRAQ . 
" SOME COMMUNISTS RESPONDED BY SNIPING FROM ROOFTOPS, BUT THEIR ORGANIZATION 
HAD SUFFERED A DEVASTATING BLOW . HUNDREDS OF THE DOGGED MEN 
WITH GREEN ARMBANDS, CARRYING MIMEOGRAPHED LISTS OF RED LEADERS COMPLETE WITH 
HOME ADDRESSES AND AUTO LICENSE NUMBERS, METHODICALLY HUNTED DOWN THE COMMUNISTS, 
WHO HAD GROWN STRONG IN KASSEM'S FINAL MONTHS . BY LAST 
WEEK THE NEW REGIME HAD KILLED OR JAILED NEARLY 2,500 DISSIDENT 
COMMUNISTS . THIS WAS ENOUGH TO WIN THE APPLAUSE OF WESTERN 
DIPLOMATS . BUT ANYONE WHO HAD WITNESSED THE PERILOUS PASSAGE OF 
OTHER, EARLIER REVOLTS WITH LAUDABLE AMBITIONS, COULD ONLY HOPE THAT THE 
REBELS WOULD STOP THE SHOOTING AND START RUNNING THE COUNTRY . 
IN THE LONG RUN, GUNS WILL HARDLY SERVE THE NEW REGIME 
BETTER THAN THEY SERVED ABDUL KARIM KASSEM . 