“The plan to disband the Republican Guard but retain the regular [Iraqi] army was approved by President Bush and his war cabinet on March 12 [2003]… One of the PowerPoint slides shown to Bush, which he endorsed, stipulated ‘maintain current status’ of the army as one component of the postwar plan. The United States ‘cannot immediately demobilize 250K-300K personnel and put them on the street,’ the same slide said. [Undersecretary of defense for policy Douglas] Feith told the president that the army would be used as ‘a national reconstruction force during the transitional phase.’ ”
– Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Page 74