no Teribus you are wrong, the CPA most certainly did disband the Iraqi army (even though it was unnecessary as they had pretty much disbanded)
it was the controversial CPA order #2 scroll down to May 23

(among the dumbest military decisions arguably in the last century..
they sent home and cut off the pay of huge numbers of young men
instantly creating a large cadre of idle, embittered and ARMED men,
who are now unemployed and have to feed their families in some way.)

By the way Garner had budgeted for keeping all these people on the payroll and help with the reconstruction- they could have been put to work cleaning out the garbage from the sewers, getting the electricity up and going etc...

(cpa order #1 was the De-baathification)
which was just as stupid. - how to go about creating conditions for insurgency.
Most Iraqis who wanted to get anywhere had to be Baath party members,
just like people had to be in the COmmunist party in Eastern Europe
- even though they didnt believe any of the doctrine - it was just a way of getting ahead.

So immediately they unemploy 1000s of professionals - who also have to feed their families. Again ideal conditions for insurgency..


By the way, any way you want to look at GEORGE Bush's new strategy -
of SURGING the troops - theres nothing new about it. Its no different than whats already been done. 21,000 troops is not a surge its barely 16% and they already had that many last year. They tried the block by block clear and hold strategy in Baghdad last summer and it didnt work. They also tried twice unsuccessfully to take on the Mahdi army in 04. Basically Bush had to say he was doing something different after the Republicans stunning defeat at the midterms.