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l. paul bremer iii

bremer

L. Paul "Jerry" Bremer served as the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq from May 2003 to June 2004. In this wide-ranging interview, he addresses the major events and policies of his tenure, including: turf wars in Washington; his controversial orders on de-Baathification and disbanding the Iraqi army -- decisions which some argue fueled the burgeoning insurgency; his repeated requests for additional U.S. troops on the ground; his disagreements with the military; his request to halt the April 2004 Fallujah offensive; his problems with Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi army; and the final handover of sovereignty to Iraqis. Though he admits "disappointing results" in providing security, Bremer disagrees with the categorization of the CPA's tenure as a "lost year": "[O]n the whole, the American people can say we did a noble thing," he tells FRONTLINE. "… We put the Iraqis on the right path, politically, to a better political future, and they now have got, certainly, the right plans to rebuild their economy. All that remains now is to effect a security strategy that defeats the Sunni insurgency." This is an edited transcript drawn from two interviews conducted on June 26 and Aug. 18, 2006.

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