One important point that Dickerson and everyone else seem to be overlooking is that there were TWO Presidential envoys to be appointed, Bremer and Zalmay Khalilzad (to replace Garner, whom Rumsfeld supported) According to a recent column Roger Cohen in The Nw York Times, "The MacArthur Lunch", Bremer had lunch with Bush the day the appointments were to be announced and convinced him to make only one appointment -Bremer himself! Khalilzad was Ambassador to Afghanistan and, after Bremer, Ambassador to Iraq. He is now UN Ambassador. With "Kal" on the scene, the order to disband the Army might have been modified, or at least its effect muted. (Garner argued against it, but to no avail.) So it seems that the decider-in-chief contributed to the debacle by his casual acceptance of Bremer's argument, without apparently consulting anyone else.

greg bachelis

www.gbachelis.com