The Bush Administration's Missteps With Iraq

Ali A Allawi   (former Minister of Trade and Minister of Defense in Iraq )

"The corroded and corrupt state of Saddam was replaced by the corroded, inefficient, incompetent and corrupt state of the new order."

"More perceptive people knew instinctively that the invasion of Iraq would open up the great fissures in Iraqi society."

    From his book "The Occupation of Iraq," published by Yale University Press.

The Americans disbanded Iraq's army, which Allawi said could have helped quell a rising insurgency in 2003. Instead, hundreds of thousands of demobilized, angry men became a recruiting pool for the resistance.

• Purging tens of thousands of members of toppled President Saddam Hussein's Baath party — from government, school faculties and elsewhere — left Iraq short on experienced hands at a crucial time.

• An order consolidating decentralized bank accounts at the Finance Ministry bogged down operations of Iraq's many state-owned enterprises.

• The CPA's focus on private enterprise allowed the "commercial gangs" of Saddam's day to monopolize business.

• Its free-trade policy allowed looted Iraqi capital equipment to be spirited away across borders.

• The CPA perpetuated Saddam's fuel subsidies, selling gasoline at giveaway prices and draining the budget.  Yahoo News

  I guess that I am going to be  spending some of my time reading this entire book. This should be a very interesting take on things.

Tags: Ali A. Allawi Iraq Bush Saddam Hussein