Not to defend this mess in any way, but the U.S’s concern may have been how much would that work against them. It’s valid concern seen now by rogue elements within the security forces working with the insurgents. If you keep the former army and only get rid of some of the select “bad generals” all you have are several potential headless monsters. How will you know the replacements to those “bad generals” won’t simply continue to be loyal to the dismissed general?
The disarming wasn’t the mistake. The mistake was in not having an adequate replacement immediately afterwards.
Anyone got a link for this? It doesn’t seem to be mentioned on the BBC, Fox, or CNN, for instance,
Don’t be silly. They’re keeping the people safe from rabies in Falluja! That’s gotta count for something.
Marines hunt down Fallujah’s strays to head off rabies threat
Soylent Green is dead insurgents
Lately I´ve been completely “off the loop”, I don´t have time to follow the news and I scarcely check the SDMB; so what I get from this is that the entire Iraqi army have been fired?, I am right???
That can´t be right.
I second the call for a link. I haven’t been able to find anything on this.
I’m about ready to call B.S. on this one. I still haven’t seen or heard anything on the matter, and it doesn’t really make sense. Iraq is a “sovereign” nation again, remember? As a matter of practice, Bush may or may not have the ability to get the Iraqi army disbanded. It would never be phrased that way, however, and it wouldn’t be so sudden.
Where did you guys hear about this, anyway?
This occurred right after we “accomplished our mission”. It was common knowledge back then but need help finding a link.
rwj
Ahh, I see what you mean. No offense whatsoever intended, but you could have been a little clearer about what you referring to.
Anyway, I agree that it was a mistake.
You seem to be under the same misimpression as VarlosZ and Quartz. We’re not discussing a recent event, but rather the dismissal of the Iraqi army immeidatly after the invasion by the US a year ago. The OP wasn’t entirely clear.
Along with not sending in enough US troops and a few other things, the dismissal of the Iraqi army was one of the things most people, both for and against the war, agree was probably a miscalculation on the part of the US gov’t. It deprived several hundred thousand armed men of thier employment making them prime recruiting targets for the insurgents, eliminated the primary source of stability in the country and destroyed one of the institutions that was probably most responsible for a sense nationalism amongst Iraq’s varied ethnic/religious groups.
Well, yes, and the fact that I´ve spent most of the day going in and out a state of stupor caused by very high fever didn´t help either.
In any case I do concur that was one of the more idiotic things on a long chain of very underfounded ideas. Pissing off and giving the boot to hundreds of thousands of combat trained people doesn´t strike me as a particulary bright approach to stability and peace.
Ah, right. Thank you.