Much other reporting has suggested that the decision to disband the Iraqi Army has made in Washington, above Bremer's head. Consistent with this, the article you cite quotes Douglas Feith in defense of the policy. Then there are these paragraphs:
- The role of top Bush administration officials in approving the plan is unclear. Mr. Slocombe said the decision was the subject of extensive consultations with senior Defense Department officials in Washington. A draft of Mr. Bremer's decree abolishing the army, he said, was sent to Mr. Rumsfeld before it was issued.
Lawrence Di Rita, Mr. Rumsfeld's spokesman, said in an e-mail message that the issue was not taken up by cabinet-level officials and was "definitely not one that the secretary of defense decided."
General Peter Pace of the Marines, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Joint Chiefs were not consulted about the decision.
Condoleezza Rice, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, indicated that the idea did not originate in the National Security Council but acknowledged that the White House did not object.
"I don't think that anybody thought it was wildly out of context with what we were trying to achieve and the whole structure had been set up so that some of those decisions could be made in the field or through the Pentagon chain," she said in an interview.
The article continues to explain that the military didn't like it. And then there's this:
- General Garner, who was winding up his service in Iraq at that time, was also opposed. He said he had not been given advance notice of the plan. "What was happening was that hundreds of Iraqi soldiers were just beginning to come back," Mr. Garner said. "We could have brought back and paired them up in former units. Instead, we just shut the door on them."
So the decision was made while General Garner "was winding up his service in Iraq"? Bremer wasn't in charge yet, but he somehow made this decision? Yeah, right.
This is too cute by half. I don't know where the idea "originated," but if you think it wasn't made in the White House, that bridge is still for sale. Oddly, the article never explains who actually made the decision. It's just a bunch of different guys pointing the finger at each other.
