5/23/2003

On May 23, 2003, Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) leader L. Paul Bremer issued CPA Order Number Two, ‘Dissolution of Entities,’ abolishing the Iraqi Army. Overnight, 400,000 Iraqi soldiers were out of work, without pay, and with nowhere to go. …By dissolving the Army, the Bush administration, State Department adviser David Phillips subsequently wrote, had ‘committed one of the greatest errors in the history of U.S. Warfare: It unnecessarily increased the ranks of its enemies.’ ”

 – Michael Isikoff and David Corn, Hubris, Page 225