Know Bush Fact #27

Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:

In January 2003, Bush appointed Retired General Jay Garner to serve as Civil Administrator in charge of reconstruction and humanitarian aid in post–Saddam Hussein Iraq.

On April 21, 2003, Garner arrived in Baghdad, stating that his top priority was to restore basic services such as water and electricity.
"What better day in your life can you have than to be able to help somebody else, to help other people, and that is what we intend to do." Garner said upon arriving.

Previously, in 1991, Garner helped lead Operation Provide Comfort, which delivered food and shelter to Kurds in northern Iraq after the first Gulf war, and had a reputation within military circles for believing that the military should be used as a "merciful instrument in shaping future humanitarian operations."

On April 28, Garner gathered 250 delegates in Baghdad representing the entire political spectrum of Iraq. It was agreed between the parties that a national conference would be held by the end of May to elect the first post-Hussein Iraqi government.

On 5 May, Jay Garner proudly announced "the beginning of a nucleus of a temporary Iraqi government" would be set up by mid-May.

Bush was not pleased.

The next day, on May 6, Bush announced his appointment of Paul Bremer as the new Presidential Envoy and Senior Coalition official in Iraq. Bremer landed in Iraq on May 12 and took over.

On May 21, Bremer announced that the national conference would not be taking place any time soon.

On May 23, Bremer dissolved the Iraqi Army, causing 400,000 people to lose their jobs. It had been Garner’s plan to utilize these people to rebuild Iraq. Instead, they were unemployed, and angry.

In an interview with Greg Palast which aired on the BBC on March 19, 2004, Garner noted, "I'm a believer that you don't want to end the day with more enemies than you started with."

Clearly different from Bremer, who, according to a former senior State Department official quoted in Newsday, is a "voracious opportunist with voracious ambitions."

Previously, Bremer was Henry Kissinger’s assistant in the State Department, and spent 11 years as Managing Director of Kissinger Associates, the powerful international business consulting firm.

At a February 2003 presentation for Cincinnati business leaders, Bremer said, "We're going to be on the ground in Iraq as soldiers and citizens for years. We're going to be running a colony almost."

For his Senior Advisor in Iraq, Bremer chose Daniel Senor, previously with The Carlyle Group (the investment company linking former President Bush with the Bin Laden family).

To verify/research, Google "Bremer +Garner."
June 6, 2004