Was Bush Aware Of Disbanding Iraqi Army? By: Mark W Adams

The President and his former Iraq Viceroy are at odds about a trifling detail. Did Paul Bremer have White House approval to include disbanding the entire Iraqi Army as part of his plan for wide-spread de-Baathification -- the one institution that might have been relied upon to provide employment and enforce stability throughout the war-torn country? This decision is without a doubt one of the most controversial of the entire war, a true turning point..

The NY Times recounts the back and forth between Bremer and Bush, via Rumsfeld, where Bremer drafted a letter on May 20, 2003, sends it on the 22nd and heard back from Bush himself on the 23rd with a "heckuvajob" letter that did not mention the plan.

One get's the impression that the "C" student CEO PrezNitWit really didn't read Bremer's letter, or at least appreciate it's import. That's more than understandable. There was a lot on his plate right then, less than three weeks after his infamous "Mission Accomplished" declaration -- he probably believed his own press clippings, that the hard part was over.

President Photo-Op certainly had another kind of awareness pressing in on him at that time. For instance, we're still going 'round and 'round about the White House's ability to spy on us, so in an Orwellian turn of phrase ...

DARPA's Congressional report announces that the controversial Total Information Awareness program will be known as the Terrorist Information Awareness program from now on, to emphasize that its purpose is to compile data on terrorists, and not to compile dossiers on US citizens. -- May 20, 2003

The very day Bremer gave the order dissolving what had been the world's third largest land army was a uniquely busy day for His PrezNitNess:

Dept SecDef Paul Wolfowitz was getting "grilled" on Capital Hill about the situation in Iraq ...

Wolfowitz tells Congress, “One of the keys to getting Iraq up and running as a country is to restore its primary source of revenue: its oil infrastructure.

That was also same day that the UN officially turned the country over to Bremer's CPA and Bush signs Executive Order No. 13303, granting immunity to oil companies working in Iraq to protect the UN's Iraq Development Fund's ability to pay for all of this so -- you don't have to.

General Tommy Franks evidently thought this whirlwind of a day would be a convenient time to announce his retirement as well.

BUT, what was really on the minds of the media, and public at large the third week of May, 2003? What do you think the President was doing May 21, 2003, and talking about on the 22nd when all this went down?

What was really important, taking precedence over supervising the future of the Middle East and the legacy we will be leaving our grandchildren? Was George Bush burning the midnight oil, preparing for this monumental day in history?

In a very, very close vote, Ruben Studdard beat out Clay Aiken to become the next American Idol.

Probably not. The Bushes are "Idol's First Fans," after all