Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, then-Commander of the ground forces in Iraq, wrote: “…by early November [2003] the CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority] was placed under the authority of [National Security Advisor] Condoleezza Rice and the National Security Council [NSC]. I believe it was done, in part, because [CPA leader] Ambassador [L. Paul] Bremer didn’t like answering to [Secretary of Defense] Donald Rumsfeld and the Department of Defense. Certainly, Bremer had lobbied hard for such a change. However, the overriding reason probably had to do with the fact that [Deputy Secretary of State Richard] Armitage and [NSC Deputy for Iraq Robert] Blackwill were finding that the CPA was failing in Iraq, that the situation was growing worse by the day, and that the NSC was the only organization that had the authority to bring all of the agencies of the government together to develop and execute a new grand strategy for Iraq.” [The 5th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Ricardo S. Sanchez with Donald T. Phillips, Wiser in Battle, Pages 285-286