5/16/2003

Following Coalition Provisional Authority leader Jerry Bremer’s May 16, 2003, decision to outlaw the Baath Party: “Lieutenant General Richard Sanchez, the U.S. Commander in Iraq, subsequently described the order as ‘devastating… [E]ssentially it eliminated the entire government and civic capacity of the nation.’ “

 – Dov S. Zakheim, A Vulcan’s Tale, Page 204