Bremer or Bush?

This Newsweek story has lots of interesting stuff in it, but I"ll pull out one thing.

I've heard pundits saying that Bremer's choice to disband the Iraqi army was a disastrous decision.

But, it turns out, the decision wasn't Bremer's. It was George W. Bush's:

The CIA station chief told him, "That's another 350,000 Iraqis you're pissing off, and they've got guns." According to one source who was at the meeting, Garner then asked if they could discuss the matter further in a smaller meeting. Garner then said: “Before you announce this thing let’s do all the pros and cons of this, because we are going to have a hell of a lot of problems with it. There are a hell of a lot more cons than there are pros. Let’s line them all up then get on the phone to [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld.” Bremer replied: “I don’t have any choice. I have to do this.” Garner then protested further, but Bremer cut him off. “The president told me that de-Baathification comes before the immediate needs of the Iraqi people.”

Thanks for disastrous decision number forty-thousand, President Bush. Number of bad decisions (and their consequences) that Bush has taken responsiblity for: zero.