Edward Wong (Extracted from "Iraq Asks Return of Some Officers of Hussein Army", New York Times, 3 November 2005

"The Iraqi government called Wednesday for the return of junior officers from the disbanded army of Saddam Hussein, openly reversing an American directive issued in 2003.. . .The Defense Ministry, with the support of the American military, has quietly recruited a few thousand former officers over the last 18 months. But this is the first time it has offered an open invitation to broad classes of former officers to rejoin the armed forces."

[Ed: In a decision of extreme foolishness in 2003, Paul Bremer, then head of the American occupation, had dismissed all of Saddam's 400,000 security forces in Iraq when he was head of the occupation, thus forcing them into unemployment. That decision is now in reverse in the hope that this will pacify the Sunnis of Iraq, strengthen the security forces and subdue the insurgency. President Bush is now desperate to be able to withdraw large numbers of American troops within months because, very soon, his own Republican Senators will be calling for it as they prepare for the mid-term elections in 2006. Whether this decision will reduce terrorism remains to be seen. My own view is that this will upset the Moqtada-led Shia forces in Baghdad while the Basra-led Shia forces in the south of the country will have even more incentive to become independent.]