Coalition Provisional Authority leader Jerry “Bremer had folded on the issue of [hiring members of] Saddam’s old army by February 2004. He told a leading Iraqi, ‘The Coalition has no principled objection to former army personnel. About 80 percent of the New Iraqi Army and Civil Defense Corps are former soldiers. All officers and NCOs are.’ …Now all of the new army’s leadership came from the old army.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Bob Woodward, State of Denial, Page 288