On May 15, 2003, Lieutenant General Jay Garner received a draft order from his replacement to run post-war Iraq, Jerry Bremer, “disbanding the Iraqi ministries of Defense and Interior, the entire Iraqi military, and all of Saddam’s body-guard and special paramilitary organizations. Garner was stunned. The de-Baathification order was dumb, but this was a disaster. Garner had told the president [Bush] and the whole National Security Council explicitly that they planned to use the Iraqi military–at least 200,000 to 300,000 troops–as the backbone of a corps to rebuild the country and provide security.”
– Bob Woodward, State of Denial, Pages 194-195