[Kaj]

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Quick example is the often spoken "mistake" of us disbanding the Iraqi army. They left on their own and there was no option to keep them intact.

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Have you seen "No End in Sight"? The senior military and civil leaders in Iraq at the time would vehemently disagree with you. They had been coordinating with senior Iraqi leaders who had accounted for their former troops and were waiting for the word to recall them. The decision to disband the army permanently was made completely by administration men who never stepped foot in Iraq and behind the back of these military and civilian leaders in Iraq who actually learned of it on the news and were outraged at the stupidity of such a move. The resulting insurgency was by no means unxpected by such men and it has played out true to form.

"It was absolutely the wrong decision," said Col. Paul Hughes of the Army, who served as an aide to Jay Garner, a retired three-star general and the first civilian administrator of Iraq. "We changed from being a liberator to an occupier with that single decision,'' he said. "By abolishing the army, we destroyed in the Iraqi mind the last symbol of sovereignty they could recognize and as a result created a significant part of the resistance."