[SevenMinusOne]

The US viceroy, Paul Bremer, disbanded the army and security forces in May 2003. In a single stroke, hundreds of thousands of professional soldiers were out of a job.

There is some truth to this statement - Many Operators on the ground were against this decision / plan - (yet higher-ups pushed it through).

With that said, it was obvious to all that a certain level of cleansing was surly needed within the ranks of the former Iraqi Army before allowing others to stay on the job.

This was a tough call from the start. But it was definitely made farther up the chain of command then it should have been (at least in absolute terms).

[jmc1969]

Wolfawitz was behind disbanding the Army mostly because Chalabi convinced him it was a good idea.