National Post
23 May 2015
- RSIS
- Media Mentions
- How the “Catastrophic” American Decision to Disband Saddam’s Military Helped Fuel the Rise of ISIL
How the “Catastrophic” American Decision to Disband Saddam’s Military Helped Fuel the Rise of ISIL
Everything seemed to be going right for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003.
Baghdad had fallen. Saddam Hussein was on the run. The Iraqi army had surrendered. Former U.S. president George W. Bush went on live television, declaring the Iraq war a victory while standing in front of a banner that read “Mission Accomplished.”
On May 11, Paul Bremer was named head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the body created to serve as a transitional government for Iraq. His first order of business called for the de-Baathification of the new government: anyone associated with Saddam’s political party was to be removed from their post and banned from ever serving again. The second order, issued on May 23, dissolved the Iraqi military and intelligence services.
An American senior coalition official at the time told CNN the order to stand down the army was “part of a robust campaign to show the Iraqi people that the Saddam regime is gone and will never return.”
… Ex-Baathists were largely kept out of prominent positions before Baghdadi’s reign because of their secular outlook, says Ahmed Hashim, a professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University researching the ties between Baathists and ISIL.
GPO / IDSS / Online
Last updated on 18/11/2015
