Disbanding Saddam's Army Was Correct, Bremer Writes

[leftchick]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2588-2005Jan12.html

~snip~

"They served an important strategic purpose and recognized realities on the ground after the war," Bremer wrote in an opinion piece.

Bremer said the coalition's objectives in Iraq went beyond "regime change" and President Bush made clear that the U.S. led forces were going to help Iraqis create "a New Iraq."

Bremer said that for more than 30 years, Hussein used the army and intelligence services "to inflict misery, torture and death on Iraqis and their neighbors. The Baath Party was another important instrument of Saddam's tyranny."

"After Liberation, the Coalition felt it was vital to reassure the Iraqi people that in the New Iraq these organizations would no longer be used as instruments of repression," he wrote, adding that the political importance of these decisions cannot be exaggerated.

"The fact that Iraq's new security forces are still not performing well enough to take full responsibility for Iraq's security underscores that creating a well-equipped, professional army cannot be done overnight," he wrote. "The problems those forces face today would be even worse if, instead of a fresh start, we had tried to restore Saddam's old system."