In 2005's State of Denial, Bob Woodward wrote extensively about how Jay Garner tried to beat back repeated directives from the Pentagon to disband the Iraqi Army and throw all Baathists (from General to janitor) out of the government. Garner colorfully describes how Bremer made it clear he was going to implement the policy and that it had come from "on high."

Here are a few more excerps of passing this buck (from Slate, September of 2007):

In his memoir, published last year, Bremer wrote that he was handed the orders—and told to announce them as soon as possible—by Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy. "We've got to show all the Iraqis that we're serious about building a new Iraq," Feith reportedly told him. "And that means that Saddam's instruments of repression have no role in that new nation."

Feith was a messenger, too, reporting directly to Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, and ultimately to Secretary Rumsfeld.

Did Rumsfeld write the order? Bob Woodward, in State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III, quotes Rumsfeld as saying that the order came from elsewhere. Does that mean it came from the White House? My guess is it came from Vice President Dick Cheney, if only because his is one of the most leakproof offices in Washington. Had the order originated someplace else, that fact would have leaked by now. It's like the dog that didn't bark in the Sherlock Holmes story; unbarking dogs in this administration, especially at this late date of decrepitude, tend to be the hounds in Cheney's kennel.

But where did Cheney get the idea? A good guess here is that it came from that familiar meddler of the era: the Iraqi exile, chief neocon guru, and suave banker-mathematician, Ahmad Chalabi.

Something is unclear here.

‘I was surprised too, but it is a decision that has been made and the president is standing behind Jerry’s decision. Jerry is the guy on the ground.’

So, who is this mysterious Jerry? No previous (or subsequent) mention of anyone with that name in the story.

"Jerry" refers to Lewis Paul Bremer III aka L. Paul Bremer. Jerry is his nickname.

For whatever reason, Republicans univerally seem to hate their first names and they revert to some sort of first initial and then incorporate their middle names as well as a nickname. oftentimes.

The landscape is littered with them. A few immediately at hand:

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
H. Boyden Gray
J. Scott Jennings

Jake,

I wondered about that too, but I have a vague memory that it refers to Bremer.

From WaPo's review of Fred Kaplan's book, Daydream Believers yesterday:

The absence of [an effective and functioning policy process] in the Bush administration resulted not only from arrogance and ignorance, but also from a failure of management at the very highest levels. Kaplan claims that the disastrous twin orders given by Coalition Provisional Authority head L. Paul Bremer to remove Baathist party members from virtually every level of the Iraqi government and to disband the Iraqi army were in fact dictated by Douglas Feith, then undersecretary of defense for policy. Yet two months earlier the National Security Council had decided to remove only the top level of Baathists from the government and to decommission only the Republican Guard, not the entire army. Feith and his boss Rumsfeld simply disregarded these decisions. But when then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told Bush that Rumsfeld was disobeying NSC decisions approved by Bush himself, Bush responded by telling Rice to meet with chief of staff Andrew Card -- he'll take care of it, he said. Card, however, was no more willing to face down Rumsfeld than Bush was. As a result, flagrant insubordination, with criminally negligent consequences, went unremarked, not to mention unpunished.

Bremer was the man who implemented the order to disband the Iraqi army therefore the "credit" should go to him. This notion about it not being his "idea" is farcical, more dishonesty from the worst administration in our history.

Lovelynina is right on the money, check out the oscar nominated documentary "No End In Sight", an excellently created retrospective on the f**k-up that is the Iraq war.

Hey, mistakes were made. Freedom's untidy. Things happen. One more "Who could have predicted...?"
And now there's nobody to blame. What a coup!

Isn't it a given when Iraq fuckups are brought up the same names surface? I'm not a Tommy Franks fan but when he described Douglas Feith he hit the nail on the head. Except it should have been Feith's head. Wolfowitz just seems unclean or crawly to me. And it's amazing how he keeps landing these high paying gigs and fucks up everyone of them. This administration just kicks to the curb talented, prescient, trained, experienced able people for political cronys who couldn't hit a cow in the ass with a shovel. Each of these assholes has been a complete failure and gets rewarded. For what? Malfeasance? Dereliction?
Stupidity? That's it, stupidity!

Can't trust any of these pack of liars. But I thought Massing/Danner (NYReview of Books) nailed it when he said it was Rumsfeld, who set the order to disband the army and then covered his tracks.

The article talks about Chalabi being Rumsfeld's ace in the hole--i.e. having Chalabi leading the country obviated, in Rumsfeld's mind, the need to have the old Iraqi army.In this way the plan we analogous to putting Karzai in charge of Afghanistan. Chalabi fell through and plan A led to the chaos we now have. Even with Chalabi at the head there would still be chaos.

Agree, Mikestand - I've seen this in business, too. And was told flat out that I would never be promoted because I was the person (near the end of the line) who said, "I want this in writing, or I'm not doing it." Small loss, and a really great way to motivate an employee.

I always wondered how business in this country managed not to go belly up more often, since all of the companies I worked for save one were dreadfully managed, and all had a crook or three somewhere in the executive core who eventaully had to be allowed to resign. Not to mention the racism and sexism that run rampant. Now I guess we are seeing what happens when they don't get to play only on high ground with their backs to the sun. Unfortunately, the idiots responsible will get bailed out and keep on making stupid decisions while the rest of us are paying for it.

Of course it was Rumsfeld.

and,

Of course it was Cheney.

So how was this decided?
I assume that the decision was made long before they even took office. The PNAC policy documents clearly indicate their desire for the total hegomony over the middle east. Hegomony isn't possible with an army of 250K hanging around.

Or... they could have decided during pillow-talk in their post-coital lassitude...