I was scapegoat for Bush, Bremer claims

Jamie Wilson in Washington
Wednesday January 11, 2006
The Guardian


The Bush administration is under more pressure over its handling of the war in Iraq after Paul Bremer, the former head of the coalition provisional authority, claimed his request for more troops was rejected by the Pentagon and the White House.
Mr Bremer, the man most commonly associated with implementing postwar policies that led to the rise of the insurgency, has claimed that senior US military officials including the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, tried to make him a scapegoat for their failings.


In a memoir published this week, Mr Bremer says that from the time he took the job in May 2003, shortly after the fall of Baghdad, he had misgivings about coalition troop levels and raised the issue a number of times with administration officials, including George Bush.

He also defended his decision to disband the Iraqi army, often cited as one of the main reasons for the rise of the insurgency as it put out on the street a mass of trained but disgruntled men, saying most Iraqi units had disbanded in the wake of the invasion anyway and a recall would have ended up with a largely Sunni force.

Mr Bremer, a career diplomat, also attacks the US's allies, including Britain, for being "weak-kneed" and getting "cold feet" over plans to arrest the militant Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1683811,00.html

Exactly!

True for him, and true for others. I think there are many second tier functionaries in this cabal's organization who signed on for on thing and got another. Those who would resign and tell the truth would be hailed almost universally as heros.

in from Italy to make 'em!)???