Envoy’s Letters Counter Bush on Dismantling of Iraq Army (Bremer strikes back)

[grytpype]

Source: NYT

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 — A previously undisclosed exchange of letters shows that President Bush was told in advance by his top Iraq envoy in May 2003 of a plan to “dissolve Saddam’s military and intelligence structures,” a plan that the envoy, L. Paul Bremer, said referred to dismantling the Iraqi Army.

Mr. Bremer provided the letters to The New York Times on Monday after reading that Mr. Bush was quoted in a new book as saying that American policy had been “to keep the army intact” but that it “didn’t happen.”

The dismantling of the Iraqi Army in the aftermath of the American invasion is now widely regarded as a mistake that stoked rebellion among hundreds of thousands of former Iraqi soldiers and made it more difficult to reduce sectarian bloodshed and attacks by insurgents. In releasing the letters, Mr. Bremer said he wanted to refute the suggestion in Mr. Bush’s comment that Mr. Bremer had acted to disband the army without the knowledge and concurrence of the White House.

...

After recounting American efforts to remove members of Mr. Hussein’s Baath Party from civilian agencies, Mr. Bremer told Mr. Bush that he would “parallel this step with an even more robust measure” to dismantle the Iraq military.

EDITED TO COMPLY WITH DU COPYRIGHT RULES

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/washington/04bremer.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1188874800-O5137ntAZnEMjy1ImZSvPQ

---

Who decided to disband the Iraqi Army? The mystery deepens.

[msongs]

1. bush is the commander in chief - he is responsible nt

[northzax]

4. And, if, maybe

He had reacted to such a large violation of policy by, say, firing someone, there might be something to his vaunted mba leadership. Seems like having a manager who ignores such a major policy directive would lead to that manager being fired by any decent supervisor anywhere.

i'd also have some modicum of respect if he said 'hey look, we thought it would work, it didn't, my fault.'

[BanzaiBonnie]

8. More like the Liar in Chief

[NewJeffCT]

30. Please - Team Bush has elevated passing the buck to an art form

they are professional buck passers - everything is Clinton's fault, or the fault of a disgruntled former employee with an axe to grind.

[DrDan]

36. well, apparently, he is also the liar-in-chief . . . .n/t

[DesEtoiles]

43. He is the DECIDER, the Commander Guy, as he keeps telling us

[alfredo]

2. Bush is a fucking weasel. He's acting like some middle management

zero, pushing the blame for some massive screwup onto someone else.

[Olney Blue]

3. It's never his fault is it? It's Brownies, or Rummies, or Scooters, or.....

[alfredo]

5. He's only qualified to hold a position that requires a paper hat and

name tag.

[Skittles]

13. that would be a real job requiring real work

that little bastard bush could not handle that

[alfredo]

35. His daddy will make sure the bosses are compensated if they

keep him on the job.

[PurpleChez]

40. I wouldn't even trust him to make french fries

I expect the folks at my local fast food boutique to have a basic handle on food safety, cleanliness, etc. I wouldn't put it past the ol' frat boy to hock a loogie in the deep fryer and then try to blame it on the retarded kid who actually works hard and treats everybody well.

[alfredo]

42. I could imagine the disparaging nicknames he would give to

his fellow workers.

[PurpleChez]

47. I bet that * would come across like "Upchuck" Ruttheimer from Daria

...convinced of his own superiority but an absolute annoyance to everybody else. That was such a great show. I always thought it was done a disservice being relegated to pre-teen channels, because the social satire in that show surpassed most adult programming. I still laugh thinking about Mr. Morgendorfer reading the comics and ranting about why they don't just put Marmaduke to sleep.

[alfredo]

48. I though that was a well done comic

[PurpleChez]

49. It was brilliant

its social satire ranked right up there with the best of the Simpsons, King of the Hill, and other network toons. (I'm woefully under-informed about less mainstream offerings.) I think that it was overlooked because it concerned high school students and was broadcast on kids' channels.

[alfredo]

51. I don't watch enough TV anymore to judge what is good and what isn't.

My TV watching is news, and some cable offerings.

[PurpleChez]

53. I just never watch TV anymore either

not even my once-beloved Fox Animated Sunday Night. I'm not an I-don't-watch-TV snob...in fact, one reason I no longer have premium cable is that I'll spend all friggin' day watching history channel. I'll watch Hitler's Henchmen in its entirety, even though I've already seen it a dozen other times. Same with The Men Who Killed Kennedy. I'll watch DVDs on the TV, but I just don't watch it at all anymore. As a result I never see commercials for movies...I'll drive past a mall cineplex and won't even recognize 3/4's of the titles.

[alfredo]

56. Before TV I watch the radio.

[aquart]

9. He IS a middle management zero.

With really handy connections. It ain't the first time the boss's son got a ridiculous promotion.

[alfredo]

45. As it turns out he is the one that has been Xeroxing his ass and

putting the results up on the bulletin board.

[struggle4progress]

11. The Resident charmingly retains the maturity he once had as a drunken fratboy.

[DesEtoiles]

44. Bush is the ultimate Pointy-Haired-Boss, except evil

[alfredo]

46. The pointy haired boss doesn't have access to nukes.

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

6. Bremer drops a bomb

Boom.

:nuke:

[young_at_heart]

7. I remember hearing-- "The adults are in charge" in Jan. 2001

That was said over and over again on right-wing sites. I wonder if they still feel that way?

[Maraya1969]

10. Can we impeach him now or is this still not enough?

This makes me furious! I did not know that they intended to destroy the Iraqi army!@!@!!@!@!!

How evil of them. I don't care that shitforbrains has denied it. The fact that he approved it is reprehensible.

[Tab]

15. Ya, right

The disgusting thing is, we set up a pattern of allowing so many of his egregious violations, that in the end nothing fazes us, and we don't find a new one of this nature "actionable", because it's relatively minor compared to the rest. As a result, these things pile on, but not one of them is "bad enough" to act on, except for the really bad stuff, which no one wants to admit to.

[DUlover2909]

12. This reiterates what Time For Change posted

about the real reasons for the invasion. Now Bremer is actually providing the proof. Can we kick the bums out now or what?

[calimary]

14. Welcome to DU! I woulda kicked this schmuck out before he even had the

audacity to start squatting in Al Gore's house.

[demgrrrll]

16. I don't trust any of them but Bremer told reporters that he had asked

for more troops, the White House originally denied that he had asked for more troops and then were forced to admit he did, in fact, request more troops. With that in mind I would think he has more credibility. It would seem that the Bush factions are reacting in typical bully style, never accepting responsibility, projecting and blaming wherever they think it will stick.

I read the NYT like people said they read Pravda. What is the message and what is the purpose of this report? I am not sure.

Edited because that is what I wanted to do.

[Sherman A1]

18. Let us remember

That while this is likely true, Bremmer is one part of the problem, not part of the solution. He along with his Boss are both failures.

:nopity:

[demgrrrll]

20. True, he was a f up of colossal proportions.

[Lasher]

23. But this crony doesn't like being made a scapegoat

He's not just rolling over like Scooter.

[Jacobin]

28. bush may have to recall his medal of freedom

[Lasher]

37. If I had been awarded a Medal of Freedom in the past I would have mixed feelings about it now

I don't think I would be bragging about it these days.

[acmavm]

17. The biggest fucking liar that ever lived is sullying the White House. OUR

White House.

This dems are back today. They better get their asses in gear and get some of the country's business done.

[JawJaw]

19. Phew

Lucky for Bremer that he kept his paper trail. If these orders had been issued by enail, no doubt they too would have "mysteriously" disappeared fro the WH servers...

"This didn’t just pop out of my head"

[xchrom]

21. lol -- i love seeing this admin eat itself.

[Imagevision]

22. Typical Bush fashion, man are we ever screwed for another 15 months!!!!!

like Bush already stated; "it'll be up to the future presidents to determine the outcome of the Iraq invasion".

[madrchsod]

24. he has always blamed others for his mistakes

and expects others to to cover these mistakes. a 60yr old man who refuses to be held accountable is still a very small child.

he is the "decider" and he is going to live with his decisions

[Frisbee]

25. "he is the "decider" and he is going to live with his decisions"

If it were only he who had to live with those decisions it would be one thing, but there are about 5 billion other people who also have to live with the ass-wipes decisions.

[underpants]

26. No one here reputable enough to believe

They all complete screwed it up -Bush Rumsfeld Bremer Franks Sanchez all of them

[Jacobin]

27. The reality probably is Cheney told Bremer to do it

Bush was as usual, playing a video game or otherwise completely disinterested, and now he says "it happened", distancing himself from any responsibility as purported commander in chief.

Typical of the frat boy dauphin

[frogcycle]

29. I just saw "No End in Sight" last night

It spends quite a bit of time on this. While a documentary is as suspect as any other source, it says that bush pretty much stepped aside w/respect to ALL the planning - both pre- and post-invasion. Just turned it over to Rummy and Cheney. It does not state directly from whence Bremer's orders came, but it makes clear he rode into town with them and would not entertain any discussion. He sprung the dissolution of the Iraqi army on everybody with zero warning. Garner saw it on the news. I forget the guys name, but there was a shill in the DoD that was interviewed who bobbed and weaved but made clear that he knew it was coming - first tried to claim he discussed it with the military people in Iraq, then backed off from that when challenged. It looked like the decision was either his or Rumsfeld's, and i don't think he was a decision maker. Chances are not all that unlikely that bush's remarks to Bremer were like "heck of a job brownie" - he had no real clue of the details of what was going on, and didn't care. He is far from "the decider." He ok's decisions that the cabal makes and pretends he is relevant.

[Javaman]

33. I saw it too this past weekend. Interesting movie.

It's just completely appalling the level of just plain ignorance this administration* was shown to have.

I loved the part about how they only started planning for post Iraq less than 60 days before the invasion. Then when the "post Iraq team" got there, they had nothing, less than nothing to work with nor were they ever given anything other then bush league college republican recruits with no experience or any training in the fields they were chosen for. Nothing but cronyism and nepotism.

heck of a job moron*!

[edhopper]

31. And still

Congress is going to roll over and give this lying sack of shit another $50 billion to continue his great leadership of this fuckup!

[Javaman]

32. Dumb and Dumber.

moron bremer cuts the iraqi army loose, tells moron* before hand, moron* denies it, then is found out he* knew all along.

I'm sooooooooooooooooo surprised.

So what is the point of moron bremer coming out with this information? just to prove he wasn't the only idiot involved in the colossally stupid ass fucked up plan to cut loose the Iraqi army?

Clue phone for bremer, everything moron* says is a lie, if you honestly believe that we all think that moron* didn't know about the troops being let go, I have a fucking giant ass bridge to sell you cheap.

Idiotocracy. We are it.

[ginnyinWI]

34. they just can't step up and take responsibility, can they??

Talk about your Blame-Game. It's like dealing with a bunch of five-year-olds.

[groovedaddy]

38. Chaos was planned all along & this was part of the plan

Think about it: the neocons want us in Iraq FOREVER (or at least until the oil's gone!).
There were 2 clear options for stabilizing Iraq:
1. Go in with overwhelming force - 450,000 - 500,000 troops and impose order, making sure to secure armories and ammo dumps (remember, U.S. troops who reached a number of these locations in Iraq during/after the invasion, were ordered to leave WITHOUT either destroying the weapons or living security details behind.
2. Use the existing Iraqi military/police to establish order in the wake of Saddam's exit.

The fact that they did neither of these (against the better judgement of U.S. military commanders) and given PNACs stated goal of establishing permanent bases there, the ensuing chaos is now used as the reason to stay, EVEN by Democrats.

Let the the Iraqi people decide what they want - encourage them to have a referendum on U.S. military presence in THEIR country (I believe Kucinich offered a resolution calling for this a few years ago).

[bemildred]

39. It was all over the news for weeks. What is this bullshit?

Read Naomi Klein's "Baghdad Year Zero". This is a pantload of dissembling blame-shifting.

[noise]

41. The mainstream media has helped him get away with it

Always presenting him as above the fray. Selling the outrageous talking point that suggests support for W's sinister occupation policy is the same as support for soldiers in harms way.

[KansDem]

50. I believe the Freeway Blogger said it best...

"Who would have thought a lifetime failure would make a lousy president"

[SalmonChantedEvening]

52. Please let THIS gun have some smoke in it. n/t

[6000eliot]

54. "He broke the window while we were robbing that house."

"No, HE broke the window while we were robbing that house!"

[Imagevision]

55. Dollar to a dime this story will fade after today, CNN told Blitzer to yank it...

[Doctor_J]

57. Bush hasn't read one fucking brief since he's been in office

Just like for the rest of his miserable life, he hasn't done ANY work for the $400K/yr he's been paid. Lazy, stupid, mean, ignorant loser. A disaster of global proportion