probably should not be counting on being named as a senior fellow at the Fantastic Freedom Institute, at least not after this story in today’s New York Times:
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.
“We must make it clear to everyone that we mean business: that Saddam and the Baathists are finished,” Mr. Bremer wrote in a letter that was drafted on May 20, 2003, and sent to the president on May 22 through Donald H. Rumsfeld, then secretary of defense.
After recounting American efforts to remove members of the Baath Party of Saddam Hussein 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.
One day later, Mr. Bush wrote back a short thank you letter. “Your leadership is apparent,” the president wrote. “You have quickly made a positive and significant impact. You have my full support and confidence.”
In truth, the references in the two letters–Bremer’s is here, and Bush’s is here–are fleeting, and the time line is not entirely clear; a White House official tells the Times that while the original plan was to keep the army intact, it was clear by the time the letter was written that it wasn’t possible.
But with this move, Bremer makes it clear, Presidential Medal of Freedom notwithstanding, he is not willing to be the goat for one of the biggest mistakes that were made in the aftermath of the invasion, and he contends that what he was doing was executing an Administration policy. As the story notes, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell has said he didn’t know about the move to disband the army until after it happened, and General Peter Pace has said the decision was made without the input of the joint chiefs. Bremer, however, tells the Times that the loop was in fact a big one, including the Joint Chiefs and then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.